Adam Gabbatt
The Guardian / March 25, 2025
President says national security adviser Mike Waltz, suspected of adding journalist to chat, ‘has learned a lesson’.
New York – Donald Trump defended his embattled national security adviser on Tuesday and said the leak of highly classified military plans was “the only glitch in two months”, as scrutiny intensified into how top US officials shared operational details for bombing Yemen in a group chat.
In an interview with NBC, the president said, “Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man,” as Democrats called for an investigation into the sharing of the plans for this month’s major airstrikes in Yemen on the Signal app. Later on Tuesday, during a meeting with ambassadors, Trump said his administration would investigate the incident but claimed “there was no classified information” shared on Signal.
“Certainly we’ll look at this,” Trump said. “But the main thing was nothing happened. The attack was totally successful.”
The Atlantic reported that Waltz, who was a congressman representing Florida before being appointed national security adviser by Trump, sent a connection request on the chat app Signal to the magazine’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, on 11 March. Goldberg was then included in a chat group in which detailed information about plans for an attack on the Houthi armed group in Yemen was shared.
Trump told NBC News that Goldberg’s presence in the chat had “no impact at all” on the military operation, and defended Waltz, claiming that the leak was “the only glitch in two months, and it turned out not to be a serious one”, as the White House sought to downplay the incident.
Asked how Goldberg was added to the chat, Trump said: “It was one of Michael’s people on the phone. A staffer had his number on there.”
Goldberg said he assumed he was being spoofed until the attacks in Yemen occurred exactly as the participants described in the chat.
In his first public comments since The Atlantic story broke, Waltz on Tuesday said: “We are looking into and reviewing how the heck he got into this room.”
Key figures in the Trump administration, including Waltz; the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth; the secretary of state, Marco Rubio; and the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard; were present in the Signal chat.
On Tuesday morning Gabbard attempted to dodge questions about the leak during a Senate intelligence committee meeting.
“Senator, I don’t want to get into this,” Gabbard said when asked by Mark Warner, the senator from Virginia, if she had participated in the chat.
Appearing alongside the CIA director, John Ratcliffe, Gabbard claimed “there was no classified material” in the Signal chat.
Ratcliffe said that when he was confirmed as CIA director he was briefed by agency officials about “the use of Signal as a permissible work use” and “a practice that preceded the current administration to the Biden administration”.
A White House statement released on Tuesday afternoon said: “Democrats and their media allies have seemingly forgotten that President Donald J Trump and his national security team successfully killed terrorists who have targeted US troops and disrupted the most consequential shipping routes in the world.
“This is a coordinated effort to distract from the successful actions taken by President Trump and his administration to make America’s enemies pay and keep Americans safe.”
While most Republicans, including Trump and the House speaker, Mike Johnson, rallied around Waltz, a few joined Democrats in condemning the leak. Don Bacon, a Republican congressman from Nebraska, told CNN the debacle was a “gross error” for which there was “no excuse”.
“They intentionally put highly classified information on an unclassified device. I would have lost my security clearance in the air force for this and for a lot less,” Bacon said. “I will guarantee you, 99.99% with confidence, Russia and China are monitoring those two phones. So I just think it’s a security violation, and there’s no doubt that Russia and China saw this stuff within hours of the actual attacks on Yemen or the Houthis.”
Nick LaLota, a Republican congressman from New York, told Politico: “At minimum, it’s totally sloppy.”
Hegseth claimed on Monday that “nobody was texting war plans” and said that Goldberg “peddles in garbage”.
Goldberg responded to Hegseth in an interview with MSNBC.
“I haven’t seen this kind of unserious behaviour before,” he said.
“And the secretary of defense, all due respect, in that presentation seems like a person who’s unserious and is trying to deflect from the fact that he participated in a conversation on an unclassified commercial messaging app that he probably shouldn’t have participated in.”
Adam Gabbatt is a writer and presenter for Guardian US, based in New York
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Democrats demand answers over White House’s ‘careless’ Signal blunder
Chris Stein & Peter Beaumont
The Guardian / March 25, 2025
Senators interrogate US intelligence community after Atlantic editor was added to group chat on Yemen war plans.
Washington/London – Democratic senators demanded answers from leaders of the US intelligence community on Tuesday on how the top editor of the Atlantic was added to a group chat discussing airstrikes in Yemen, arguing that the “sloppy, careless” leak put national security at risk.
The unusual story broke on Monday, when The Atlantic published a piece by its editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, who said he had been added to the group on the messaging app Signal, and watched as accounts that appeared to match top Trump administration officials, including Vice-President JD Vance and the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, debated and then coordinated a wave of bombings targeting the Houthis in Yemen.
Donald Trump has defended his national security adviser Michael Waltz, who Goldberg said invited him into the group.
Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, and John Ratcliffe, the CIA director, both of whom were also in the group, appeared on Tuesday before the Senate intelligence committee for an annual hearing on threats facing the United States, which Democrats used to accuse them of failing to protect sensitive details of US military operations.
“I think this is one more example of the kind of sloppy, careless, incompetent behaviour, particularly towards classified information,” the committee’s vice-chair, Mark Warner, said.
Gabbard, a former congresswoman who has been accused of sympathizing with Russia and other American adversaries, declined to answer many questions about the chat group, initially saying “this is currently under review by the national security council”.
“The discussion that took place in that Signal chat group was a conversation reflecting national security leaders and the vice-president around the president’s objectives,” she later said, while declining to answer if she would have approved details of such a conversation to be revealed publicly, or if she was using a personal or work phone to participate in the group.
Under questioning from Warner, Ratcliffe acknowledged that he was in the group but said the app was approved for use by government officials under the Biden administration and it was loaded on his devices when he became CIA director.
“It is permissible to use to communicate and coordinate for work purposes, provided … that any decisions that are made are also recorded through formal channels,” Ratcliffe said.
“My communications, to be clear, in a Signal message group were entirely permissible and lawful and did not include classified information.”
However, National Public Radio reported on Tuesday that the defense department warned last week not to use Signal because of security issues, even for unclassified information. The warning explained that Russian hacking groups were targeting a feature of the app to gain access to its users’ encrypted conversations.
Another key question was the physical location of Gabbard and of Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, during their participation in the chat – as well as what devices they used, including in Russia.
Flight records and Russian media reports suggest Witkoff, who is also involved in mediating talks between Ukraine and Russia, appears to have been in Moscow during the period of the Signal chat.
For her part, Gabbard admitted during the session that she had also been abroad while the chat group was active. She declined to answer whether she had used a personal or government device to participate, citing a White House review she said was ongoing.
The DNI’s webpage and reports show that Gabbard was on a week-long visit to Japan, Thailand and India during the period in question.
The Democratic senator Michael Bennet took Ratcliffe to task for what he described as his careless approach to cybersecurity. “You’re the CIA director. Why didn’t you call out that [Goldberg] was present on the Signal thread?” Bennet asked.
“This is just a normal day at the CIA, where we chat about this kind of stuff over Signal. In fact, it’s so normal that the last administration left it here for us,” the Colorado senator said.
“This swampiness, this incompetence, this disrespect for our intelligence agencies and the personnel who work for him is entirely unacceptable. It’s an embarrassment. You need to do better.”
The FBI director, Kash Patel, said he had become aware of the leak only the previous evening, and could not say if his agency would investigate.
Republicans generally avoided discussing the Signal chat, or said they would address it in a closed session of the committee. After retaking the majority in the Senate last November, the GOP has quickly confirmed Trump’s cabinet nominees and shown little interest in defying the president.
Near the hearing’s conclusion, the Democratic senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia asked the CIA director if he would agree the leak was a “huge mistake” – to which Ratcliffe replied “no”.
“This is utterly unprofessional. There’s been no apology. There has been no recognition of the gravity of this error,” Ossoff said. “And by the way, we will get the full transcript of this chain and your testimony will be measured carefully against its content.”
Chris Stein is a senior politics reporter for Guardian US, based in Washington
Peter Beaumont is a senior international reporter
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Intelligence chiefs deny they discussed war plans on Signal in House hearing
Chris Stein
The Guardian / March 26, 2025
National intelligence head Tulsi Gabbard and CIA director John Ratcliffe argue ‘no classified information’ was leaked.
US intelligence chiefs on Wednesday denied breaking the law or revealing classified information in a group chat where they discussed details of air strikes on Yemen in the presence of a journalist, despite allegations from Democrats that the leak was reckless and possibly illegal.
The director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, and CIA director, John Ratcliffe, were giving their second day of congressional testimony on global threats facing the United States, which Democratic lawmakers seized on to condemn their use of the Signal app to discuss arrangements to bomb the Houthis in a group that included Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of the Atlantic.
The hearing before the House intelligence committee took place less than two hours after the Atlantic released a full transcript of the chat, which revealed that the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, had shared in the group timings of the airstrikes and the weapons that would be used.
“Now we come to learn that people in the most dangerous and sensitive jobs on the planet put extremely specific pre-decisional discussions about a military attack on Signal, which could be intercepted by the Russians and the Chinese,” the committee’s top Democrat, Jim Himes, said. “Everyone here knows that the Russians or the Chinese could have gotten all of that information, and they could have passed it on to the Houthis, who easily could have repositioned weapons and altered their plans to knock down planes or sink ships.
“I think that it’s by the awesome grace of God that we are not mourning dead pilots right now.”
In an appearance before the Senate the previous day, Gabbard had said that the chat did not contain details of the strikes’ timing, targets or weapons used – an assertion that Himes said was contradicted by the Atlantic’s transcript.
“My answer yesterday was based on my recollection, or the lack thereof, on the details that were posted there,” Gabbard said, adding that she was “not directly involved with that part of the Signal chat”.
She sought to downplay the severity of the leak, saying the Signal chat was “a policy discussion” to which Goldberg “was inadvertently added”.
“The conversation was candid and sensitive, but as the president [and] national security adviser stated, no classified information was shared. There were no sources, methods, locations or war plans that were shared,” Gabbard said.
Ratcliffe argued that Signal was “an appropriate channel to communicate sensitive information”, despite earlier warnings from the defense department that it could be targeted by Russian hackers.
“I didn’t transfer any classified information. And at the end of the day, what is most important is that the mission was a remarkable success,” the CIA director said.
Democrats countered that what was revealed in the group was classified. Raja Krishnamoorthi had an aide hold up the printed Signal messages in which Hegseth shared exact details of the strikes.
“This is classified information. It’s a weapon system as well as sequence of strikes, as well as details about the operations,” Krishnamoorthi said. “This text message is clearly classified information. Secretary Hegseth has disclosed military plans as well as classified information. He needs to resign immediately.”
Republicans rejected the claims by having Ratcliffe and Gabbard note that details such as the names of the targets or specific locations were not revealed in the chat.
“The Democrats are obviously making the assertions that what was in the Signal chat was classified, and claiming that Secretary Hegseth put this war plan out to the world, which he clearly did not,” the Florida Republican Greg Steube said.
Democrats have been reeling in the months since Donald Trump won the November election and Republicans clinched majorities in both the Senate and House of Representatives, but the emergence of the Signal chat has provided them with an opportunity to paint the new administration as reckless.
The Democratic congressman Jimmy Gomez prompted fury from the witnesses when he asked Gabbard and Ratcliffe if they knew whether Hegseth, who pledged not to consume alcohol during his confirmation process after reports emerged that he had a history of excessive drinking, may have been under the influence when using the chat.
“I think that’s an offensive line of questioning. The answer is no,” Ratcliffe replied.
When Ratcliffe and Gabbard appeared before a Senate intelligence committee hearing on Tuesday, Democrats questioned them extensively about the Signal group, while Republicans either avoided the topic or said they would ask about it in a private session. In the day since, some Republican senators said they would demand the Trump administration investigate the group chat, while others have restated their support for Trump’s national security team.
“I think President Trump has handled this matter well,” the Republican senator Lindsey Graham said on Wednesday. “Further, I believe that all the participants in the chat were under the impression they were using an appropriate and secure form of communication. This will also fall into the category of ‘lessons learned’.”
Chris Stein is a senior politics reporter for Guardian US, based in Washington
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White House security leak: who’s who in the Signal group chat
Peter Beaumont
The Guardian / March 25, 2025
Defense secretary, US vice-president and senior Trump advisers wrote openly about the strikes on Yemen.
Pete Hegseth
US defense secretary
The appointment of the Fox News host to head the Pentagon was highly controversial. A former Army National Guard officer, Pete Hegseth, 44, has faced allegations of sexual misconduct, financial mismanagement and alcohol abuse.
His contributions to the group chat include suggesting that because Americans were unfamiliar with the Houthi armed group in Yemen that messaging could instead focus on the alleged failures of the former US president Joe Biden.
He also appeared to be one of the most gung-ho participants, warning: “Waiting a few weeks or a month does not fundamentally change the calculus. 2 immediate risks on waiting: 1) this leaks, and we look indecisive; 2) Israel takes an action first – or Gaza ceasefire falls apart – and we don’t get to start this on our own terms.” Hegseth also makes references to enforcing “100%” operational security in the event the action was paused, despite the fact it was already compromised by a journalist’s presence in the group.
Most alarming, however, was Hegseth’s sharing of a “TEAM UPDATE” the Atlantic decided not to publish because of the risk it said that it posed to US servicemen and operations in the Middle East.
JD Vance
US vice-president
The 40-year-old served as a press officer in Iraq for six months in a non-combat role before studying law at Yale and beginning his political career after the success of his memoir, Hillbilly Elegy.
In the chat, Vance, who has often appeared as Trump’s tag team partner, not least in the Oval Office pile-on of Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, displays more independence of thought in the conversation.
“I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now. There’s a further risk that we see a moderate-to-severe spike in oil prices. I am willing to support the consensus of the team and keep these concerns to myself. But there is a strong argument for delaying this a month, doing the messaging work on why this matters, seeing where the economy is, etc.”
Later in the chat he reinforces his animus towards Europe, previously seen at the Munich Security Conference, in a message responding to Hegseth: “If you think we should do it let’s go. I just hate bailing Europe out again.”
Stephen Miller
Senior Trump adviser
Miller, 39, a longtime bete noire for liberals due to his incendiary views on immigration and other issues, was also seen as an intellectual architect of efforts to block the election of Joe Biden in 2020, suggesting publicly that slates of “alternate” electors be sent to Congress.
Identified by the Atlantic as SM in the conversation, he intervenes to insist that the president has already been clear about the decision to attack Yemen, suggesting that he speaks for Trump and with his authority.
“As I heard it, the president was clear: green light, but we soon make clear to Egypt and Europe what we expect in return. We also need to figure out how to enforce such a requirement. Eg, if Europe doesn’t remunerate, then what? If the US successfully restores freedom of navigation at great cost there needs to be some further economic gain extracted in return.”
Michael Waltz
National security adviser
A former Republican member of Congress and special forces soldier who served overseas, Waltz, like other former military personnel in the chat, including Vance, Hegseth, and the director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, should have been aware of the breach of operational security involved in the chat.
It was Waltz, the Atlantic suggests, who erroneously invited Jeffrey Goldberg on Signal to take part in the war planning group.
Other significant individuals on the chat
Steve Witkoff, the US special envoy to the Middle East, is also involved in negotiations with Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, over a Ukraine ceasefire plan. Witkoff contributes congratulatory emojis after the Yemen attack. Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, reported contribution amounts largely to offering congratulations on the operation, and Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, offers “kudos”.
