House Democrats demand answers from Trump team about war plans Signal chat
The top Democrats on the House’s Defense, Oversight, Foreign Affairs, and Intelligence committees want answers from President Trump’s national security team, saying they’ve become “deeply troubled” after a journalist was unknowingly added to a group chat of senior officials discussing war plans.
While the White House on Tuesday continued to confirm but sought to downplay the fact Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, was added to a group chat discussing plans for attacks against Houthi rebels in Yemen on Signal earlier this month, Goldberg maintains that the chat included what appeared to be classified “operational details.”
Among the claims levied by Goldberg is that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth used the encrypted messaging app to send the group specific attack plans, targets the U.S. would strike and the types of weapons that would be used two hours before the attacks in Yemen took place.
That is of particular concern to the lawmakers, who wrote in a letter to Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and national security adviser Mike Waltz that the reported deliberations “may have constituted a security breach” that “could have compromised the operational security of, and by implication the safety of the service members involved in, the related military activities.”
The letter was signed by House Armed Services Committee ranking member Adam Smith (D-Wash.), Oversight and Government Reform Committee ranking member Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), House Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence ranking member Jim Himes (D-Conn.).
The lawmakers also maintain that Signal is an electronic messaging application that is not approved by the U.S. government as a secure method for communicating classified information.
They want to know whether information on U.S. military activities against the Houthis was disclosed by any National Security Council principal and if so, by whom; what specifically was discussed; and whether anyone from the council held discussions on national security matters using Signal or any other messaging service not approved for transmitting classified information.
The lawmakers also want to know if classified information was shared in the instance reported by The Atlantic or in any other instance described.
Since the bombshell report on Monday, the White House has been evasive on whether Signal is indeed not approved to send classified material or information. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday would only assert that the White House Counsel’s Office has provided guidance on platforms administration officials can use to communicate, but she did not say if that included Signal.
And in the meeting with U.S. ambassadors at the White House later Tuesday, Trump said he doesn’t think Signal will be used anymore but that a situation could arise in which you need “speed over gross safety.”
“Sometimes you have to move very quickly and there are other devices that are very good, but they are very, very cumbersome, and you’re not able to use them from a practical standpoint. So, all we can do is find out the best we have with modern technology,” Trump said.
Still, multiple top Trump officials on Tuesday insisted that “no classified material” or “war plans” were relayed in the Signal chat, to which Goldberg was invited by Waltz on March 13.
Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe both testified under oath before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday that “no classified material” was shared in the group text.
Trump said he will conduct an investigation into what happened, saying the issue wouldn’t be up to the FBI, but that it is a security problem about whether another form of communication should be looked into instead of Signal. Waltz, who spoke alongside Trump, said that technical experts and legal teams are looking into it.
But Democratic lawmakers have not been satisfied with those explanations, with Sen. Mark Warner (Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, on Tuesday calling on Waltz and Hegseth to resign.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) also on Tuesday urged Trump to immediately fire Hegseth, calling him “the most unqualified secretary of Defense in American history,” whose presence as head of the Pentagon “threatens the nation’s security and puts our brave men and women in uniform throughout the world in danger,” according to a new letter.
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