WASHINGTON (States Newsroom) — National security officials grilled by Democratic senators Tuesday denied any wrongdoing by Trump administration Cabinet members who discussed plans to bomb Yemen on a Signal group chat shared with The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe and National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard sidestepped questions about specific details shared in the text chain and insisted no classified information was relayed over the messaging app.
The officials testified for nearly two hours during the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence’s regularly scheduled hearing on worldwide threats.
Ratcliffe’s and Gabbard’s denials that operational details, including timing and strike targets, were disclosed in the chat contradict Goldberg’s stunning report on the breach. His article was published less than 24 hours prior to their appearance before the panel.
Goldberg told of receiving an invitation, presumably inadvertent, from National Security Advisor Michael Waltz to join a group chat of top security officials. Goldberg remained in the chat, apparently unnoticed, for multiple days and witnessed discussion of planning details and subsequent celebrations of U.S. strikes on Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.
‘I don’t want to get into this’
Gabbard initially refused to confirm she was part of the chat, under the initials “TG.” “I don’t want to get into this,” she told Sen. Mark Warner, the panel’s vice chair.
Turning to the CIA director, Warner asked “You were the ‘John Ratcliffe’ on that chat?”
“I was,” Ratcliffe confirmed to the Virginia Democrat.
Ratcliffe defended the use of Signal, an encrypted commercial messaging app, as a regularly used channel by government officials to “communicate and coordinate for work purposes provided, Senator, that any decisions that are made are also recorded through formal channels.”
“My communications, to be clear, in the Signal message group were entirely permissible and lawful and did not include classified information,” Ratcliffe said.
Gabbard also testified to the panel that no classified information was discussed in the group chat.
Sen. Angus King, independent of Maine, told Gabbard he was “puzzled” by her assertion.
“According to open source reporting, at 11:44 on the morning of March 15, (Defense) Secretary Hegseth put into this group text a detailed operation plan, including targets, the weapons we were going to be using, attack sequences and timing,” King said. “Wouldn’t that be classified?”
“Senator, I can attest to the fact that there were no classified or intelligence equities that were included in that chat group at any time,” Gabbard said, telling King to ask the Pentagon for further information on classification.
“If that’s the case, please release that whole text stream so that the public can have a view of what actually transpired on this discussion,” King said.
While Goldberg did publish verbatim portions and screenshots of the chat — including emoji symbols the officials used to celebrate the strikes — the national magazine editor, citing troop safety concerns, did not quote from Hegseth’s messages regarding targets, weapons to be used and sequencing of strikes.
Adversary nations
Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia brought up the scenario that a wider leak of the chat would have been of interest to adversary countries, particularly revealing the “time period during which enemy air defenses could target U.S. air crews flying in enemy airspace.”
“Director Ratcliffe, this was a huge mistake, correct?” Ossoff asked.
“No,” Ratcliffe replied.
A Pentagon-wide advisory warned officials on March 18 against using Signal because of possible spying, according to an NPR investigative report published Tuesday.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the Signal group chat Tuesday morning in a post on the social media platform X, attacking Goldberg as “well-known for his sensationalist spin.”
“Here are the facts about his latest story: 1. No ‘war plans’ were discussed. 2. No classified material was sent to the thread. 3. The White House Counsel’s Office has provided guidance on a number of different platforms for President Trump’s top officials to communicate as safely and efficiently as possible,” Leavitt wrote.
She added, “the White House is looking into how Goldberg’s number was inadvertently added to the thread.”
Attack on media
Just after noon Eastern Tuesday, the White House press office issued a statement characterizing media reporting on the breach as a “coordinated effort to distract from the successful actions taken by President Trump and his administration to make America’s enemies pay.”
When pressed by a reporter Monday at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickman in Hawaii, Hegseth attacked Goldberg and said, “Nobody was texting war plans, and that’s all I have to say about that.”
Warner and other Democratic lawmakers have called for the resignations of Hegseth and Waltz.
Tuesday’s Senate Intelligence panel hearing was streamed in its entirety on C-SPAN.
Dozens were killed in the March 15 strikes, according to reporting by The Associated Press that cited Houthi-run health officials.
Former President Joe Biden, joined by British forces, also targeted Houthi strongholds in Yemen beginning in January 2024.
The rebel group has been attacking commercial ships in the Red Sea since the beginning of Israel’s war on Hamas following the Oct. 7, 2023 attack.
