One day after The Atlantic reported that a reporter was accidentally included in a group text that contained attack plans on Yemen, several Trump administration members went before the Senate Intelligence Committee.
The hearing was scheduled for Tuesday well before The Atlantic's report was published and was intended to be a discussion on "worldwide threats." However, it is expected that several attendees could be pressed on how secure U.S. intelligence is in the wake of the group text.
In an article published Monday, Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, detailed how on March 11, he received a connection request on the encrypted app Signal from a user identified as Michael Waltz. In the days that followed, Goldberg said he was added to a group chat titled "Houthi PC small group." The group of about two dozen individuals included users who identified themselves as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Waltz, Goldberg writes.
RELATED STORY | Trump officials inadvertently added journalist to text chain on war plans
The users discussed policy considerations regarding a strike on Iran-backed Houthi rebels. At one point, the account tied to Vance expressed hesitation about the strikes but ultimately stated he would "support the consensus of the team." Goldberg said a subsequent message from Hegseth "contained operational details of forthcoming strikes on Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing."
Hegseth rebuked Goldberg's report by saying, "You're talking about a deceitful and highly discredited so-called journalist who's made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again to include the, I don't know, the hoaxes of Russia, Russia, Russia or the fine people on both sides hoax or suckers and losers hoax. So this is the guy that peddles in garbage."
The Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, and Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe were also in the text chain. The two are appearing before the committee on Tuesday.
"My communications, to be clear in the Signal message group, were entirely permissible and lawful and did not include classified information," Ratcliffe said. He added that the use of Signal within the CIA was permissible before the Trump administration.
Gabbard said that there was "no classified material" shared in the group text.
Sen. Mark Warner, the leading Democrat on the committee, urged Ratcliffe and Gabbard to share the contents of the messages if they included no classified information.
During Tuesday's hearing, he added, "I think this is one more example of the kind of sloppy, careless, incompetent behavior—particularly towards classified information—that this is not a one-off, or a first-time error.”
Warner asked Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Kash Patel, who was also among the witnesses at Tuesday's hearing, if the FBI has launched an investigation. Patel said he was briefed on the situation late Monday night, and as of Tuesday's hearing, no investigation was underway.
Sen. Jon Ossoff asked Ratcliffe if "this was a huge mistake, correct?" Ratcliffe said "no."
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