The Trump administration tried to soften the blow yesterday after a magazine reporter revealed he had been inadvertently included in a secret group discussion about highly classified war plans, while Democrats called on top officials to resign over the security incident.
The stunning intelligence leak has sparked anger among Republicans who had previously called for criminal investigations into Hillary Clinton and others for their irresponsible handling of classified information.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, who were both participants in the group, said in testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee that no classified material was shared in the group chat on the Signal app, a commercial encrypted platform.
However, Democratic senators have expressed doubt about these claims, citing a journalist, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine Jeffrey Goldberg, who reported that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had laid out operational details of planned strikes on the Iran-linked Houthis in Yemen - "including information on targets, weapons the US would use and the sequence of attacks."
"I find it hard to believe that the information about the targets, the time of the attack and the type of weapons was not classified," said Senator Angus King, an independent who votes with the Democrats, during a heated hearing that was marked by several heated debates.
Monday's shocking news sparked anger and disbelief among national security experts, with Democrats - as well as some of Trump's Republican allies - calling for an investigation into what they described as a serious security lapse.
"I think there should be resignations, starting with the national security adviser and the secretary of defense," Democratic Senator Ron Wyden said during the hearing.
Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff appeared, according to Reuters, very annoyed after Ratcliffe responded to a series of questions about the content of the Signal chat group with "I don't remember."
"Director Ratcliffe, you must have prepared for this hearing today," Ossoff said. "You are part of a group of the highest-ranking officials in the US government, and now we have a highly publicized leak of classified information."
"We will obtain a full transcript of this correspondence, and your testimony will be carefully compared with its contents," he added.
Ratcliffe, according to the "Grdijan" newspaper, said that when he was confirmed as CIA director, agency officials informed him about "the use of the Signal app as an authorized work tool" and that it was "a practice that existed before this administration, back during the Biden administration."
A former US security official told Reuters that operational details of military operations are usually classified and known only to a few people at the Pentagon. Such top-secret information, he said, is usually stored on computers using a separate, isolated network.
Earlier yesterday, President Donald Trump expressed support for his national security adviser, Michael Walz, who mistakenly added Goldberg to a chat group on the Signal app.
"Michael Walz learned his lesson, and he's a good man," Trump said in a phone interview with NBC News.
National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes said Monday that the chat group appeared authentic. The White House said it was investigating how Jeffrey Goldberg's number was added to the conversation.
Confidential and sensitive information should not be shared through commercial mobile phone applications, and unknown numbers - like Goldberg's - should not be included, according to Reuters.
Accounts that appear to belong to Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Ratcliffe, Gabbard, Treasury Secretary Scott Besant, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and senior National Security Council officials were gathered in a chat group, Goldberg wrote on Monday.
White House spokeswoman Carolyn Levitt accused Goldberg on Network X of sensationalizing the story and claimed that war plans were not discussed, nor was any confidential material sent to the group.
Goldberg did not release details of the planning he claims Hegset put into place for the company, but he described it as "shockingly irresponsible."
Hegseth told reporters on Monday that no one had sent war plans via text message. Goldberg, appearing on CNN that evening, called his comments "lies."
In addition to giving Goldberg direct insight into the planning of the attack on the Houthis, administration officials also expressed in their messages without holding back what they thought of the European allies, whom they at one point called "the scoundrels" who "have to be saved again."
British Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said yesterday that the UK's security ties with the US are "as strong as ever".
Asked to comment on the US officials' statements, Rayner said: "People sometimes say things in private messages, and it's up to the vice president to decide and explain what exactly he meant by those conversations." "We've been sharing intelligence and information for decades and we'll continue to do so through our secure networks. It's up to the US... to explain and decide what they're doing with respect to their security and that Signal chat group."
Earlier, a spokesman for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that the government was confident that there would be no leak of any communications between British intelligence services and the US.
It remains unclear why US officials chose to communicate via the Signal app instead of through secure government channels typically used for sensitive conversations.
“Signal has an excellent reputation and is widely used in security circles,” said Rocky Cole, whose cybersecurity firm helps protect smartphone users from hackers.
“The risk of discussing highly classified national security information on Signal is not so much that Signal itself is insecure,” added Cole. “The problem is that threat actors, such as states, have already demonstrated the ability to remotely compromise an entire mobile phone. If the phone itself is not secure, all Signal messages on that device can be read.”
Republican Congressman Don Bacon, a retired Air Force general and member of the House Armed Services Committee, told reporters that Hegseth must take responsibility for the leak, which he said endangered lives.
Asked about the White House's claim that classified information was not shared, Bacon replied: "They should just be honest and admit it."
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