FBI Director Kesh Patel, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard will appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee and the US House of Representatives Intelligence Committee today and Wednesday in hearings about the security breach that occurred when war plans were mistakenly leaked to journalists.
Today's hearing comes a day after news emerged that several top security officials, including Ratcliffe and Defence Secretary Pete Hegsett, sent messages about war plans for military strikes in Yemen to a group chat on a secure messaging app that included a journalist, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic.
The messages contained operational details about upcoming attacks on Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, including information about targets, the weapons the US would use, and the sequence of attacks. The attacks began two hours after the editor in question received the details.
"Horrified by the leak of highly classified information," the top Democrat on the House committee, Representative Jim Hymes of Connecticut, said he would demand answers at the hearing.
Hearings on threats around the world will provide insight into the Trump administration's reorientation of priorities, which agency officials have described as combating the drug fentanyl and combating crime, human trafficking and illegal immigration.
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