Signal chats released as Tulsi Gabbard answers questions
In a House hearing, intelligence leaders claimed no classified information was shared in a Signal chat, even after the full text was released.
WASHINGTON – It’s one of the oldest rituals in the nation’s capital: People screw up, one is lauded for valiantly taking responsibility, blame is deflected and investigations are launched. Then everyone moves on.
But not this time – at least according to congressional Democrats. There are too many outstanding questions emerging – involving too many powerful people – for that to happen in what is becoming known as SignalGate.
That’s shorthand for the stunning security breach by top Trump administration officials who gathered in an encrypted but unsecured commercial messaging app earlier this month to discuss active, operational military plans and operations while a journalist watched after having been “inadvertently” invited.
Chief among the questions: Who, exactly, is to blame? Was classified information discussed via the Signal chat group? Did it put U.S. troops attacking Houthi rebels in Yemen in harm’s way? Will anyone be held accountable?
And perhaps most serious of all: Did some participants – notably Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Trump friend and diplomatic envoy Steve Witkoff – inadvertently share chat details by bringing vulnerable phones with them to visits with top-level Russian and other governments?
Here’s what we know as of late Wednesday afternoon:
Who’s to blame and will they face consequences?
On Wednesday, Democratic lawmakers called for Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s head after The Atlantic magazine published additional details of encrypted messages he sent earlier this month. Others in the chat included Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and CIA Director John Ratcliffe.
Hegseth’s offense? Sending what clearly appears to be classified information in the Signal chat about the timing and specifics about U.S. military airstrikes on Iran-backed militant group hours before they occurred on March 15, killing at least 53 people. The Houthis have launched dozens of attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since November.
But who, exactly, invited Atlantic Editor in Chief Jeffrey Goldberg to the chat heard ’round the world? With Signal, like many other communications apps, you need to already have someone’s contact information to reach out to them.
On March 11, Goldberg received a Signal connection request from Mike Waltz, Trump’s top national security adviser, he wrote in a bombshell article published online Monday. Two days later, someone added Goldberg to a “Houthi PC small group” chat in which the Trump principals discussed the upcoming airstrikes and, afterward, rejoiced at the damage they caused.
“I take full responsibility. I built the group,” Waltz told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham Tuesday night. “It’s embarrassing. We’re going to get to the bottom of it.”
“I can tell you for 100% I don’t know this guy,” Waltz added. “I know him by his horrible reputation… And I know him in the sense that he hates the president, but I don’t text him. He wasn’t on my phone. And we’re going to figure out how this happened.”
When Ingraham asked if someone else who knew Goldberg accidentally included him in the chat, Waltz was cryptic, saying, “A staffer wasn’t responsible.”
Waltz said there was a different person meant to be added to the group. “You got somebody else’s number on someone else’s contact. So, of course, I didn’t see this loser in the group. It looked like someone else,” he said. “Now, whether he did it deliberately or it happened in some other technical mean is something we’re trying to figure out.”
Trump quickly defended Waltz, also on Fox News, saying the incident was a “mistake,” that there was “nothing important” in the Signal text thread and that Waltz is “not getting fired.”
Trump also suggested a Waltz underling was to blame.
“What it was, we believe, is somebody that was on the line with permission, somebody that was with Mike Waltz, worked for Mike Waltz at a lower level had Goldberg’s number or call through the app, and somehow this guy ended up on the call,” Trump said.
As for Goldberg, he denied Waltz’ suggestion that he somehow got himself added to the group.
In his original article, he wrote that, “I have met him in the past, and though I didn’t find it particularly strange that he might be reaching out to me, I did think it somewhat unusual, given the Trump administration’s contentious relationship with journalists — and Trump’s periodic fixation on me specifically” for critical articles Goldberg wrote.
On Wednesday, Goldberg told CBS News, “I’m just not going to comment on my relationship with Mike Waltz.”
Was classified information shared in the group chat?
Many Democrats think so and said new chat details released Wednesday were grounds for Hegseth’s dismissal.
In its follow-up article published Wednesday, Goldberg and colleague Shane Harris posted pictures of messages Hegseth sent the chat listing the planned launch times of F-18s and Tomahawks two hours ahead of the planned attack.
“The Trump administration is arguing that the military information contained in these texts was not classified — as it typically would be — although the president has not explained how he reached this conclusion,” they wrote.
Hegseth “undoubtedly transmitted classified, sensitive operational information via this chain,” Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., told Gabbard and Ratcliffe at a House Intelligence Committee hearing Wednesday.
“The idea that this information, if it was presented to our committee, would not be classified — you all know that’s a lie,” Castro, D-Texas, said at the hearing, held to discuss worldwide threats.
“It’s a weapon system, as well as a sequence of strikes, as well as details of the operations,” Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., said of the newly released chat detail. Hegseth “needs to resign immediately.”
Numerous participants in the chat, and White House and Pentagon officials, continue to insist Wednesday that no classified information was shared.
“There was no classified information transmitted,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters. “There were no war plans discussed.”
Rep. Jim Himes, the committee’s ranking Democrat, confronted Gabbard with the classification guidelines of her own agency, the Office of Director of National Intelligence, on Wednesday, saying they hold that “information providing indication or advanced warning that the U.S. or its allies are preparing an attack” is clearly classified as “top secret.”
“I don’t disagree with that,” Gabbard replied. But she said she was relying on Hegseth as the Pentagon representative on the chat to determine what involving the military operation was classified.
Gabbard also testified that the Signal messaging app “comes pre-installed on government devices,” and said administration officials were encouraged to use it to communicate, though in-person conversations are ideal.
Ratcliffe similarly passed the buck to Hegseth during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Tuesday.
Was anyone put in harm’s way by the security breach?
Hegseth and other Trump administration officials have focused on what they said was a successful mission to kill terrorists. The White House and Pentagon are among those agencies that have said they will investigate the breach.
So far, no one else is known to have gotten the information ahead of time. But in their Atlantic piece, Goldberg and Harris wrote, “If this text had been received by someone hostile to American interests — or someone merely indiscreet, and with access to social media — the Houthis would have had time to prepare for what was meant to be a surprise attack on their strongholds. The consequences for American pilots could have been catastrophic.”
House Democrats maintain that Houthi militants could have shot down U.S. aircraft and drones if Hegseth’s texts had gotten out.
“It is by the grace of God that we don’t have dead pilots or sunken ships right now,” Himes told a Fox News host Tuesday night.
Did any sensitive information fall into the wrong hands?
That’s almost impossible to tell, given the stealth nature of hacking and intercepting signals intelligence, or electronic communications like the chat messages shared on Signal.
But both House and Senate Democrats have homed in on what whether Gabbard was using a personal or government phone to engage in the chat during a recent overseas official business trip to Japan, Thailand and India.
“I won’t speak to this because it’s under review by the National Security Council,” Gabbard told Sen. Jack Reed, D-Rhode Island on Tuesday.
“It’s a very simple question. Your private phone or officially issued phone,” Reed replied. “What could be under review?”
Gabbard wouldn’t answer. On Wednesday, House Democrats pushed the issue – and also asked about Witkoff, Trump’s billionaire friend who is also his special envoy to the Middle East and Russia.
When Crow asked if Gabbard was aware that Witkoff was in Russia while he was in the chat group, she said she was “not aware of that.”
Witkoff has said he was personally meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss an end to its war with Ukraine.
“Was he on his personal phone at the time?” Crow asked.
“I don’t know,” Gabbard said.
When Crow, a combat veteran, asked the nation’s top spy where she was traveling during the chat, she replied: “I don’t recall which country I was in at that time.”
“You don’t remember the country?” Crow asked.
“I’d have to go back and look at the schedule,” Gabbard said.
After the hearing, Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., wrote “with grave concern” to both Gabbard and Witkoff about their use of a Signal chat discussing U.S. military operations while they were on foreign travel.
According to public records, Schiff said, Gabbard was on her multi-nation tour during the time frame at issue. Witkoff, he said, “was in Russia” when Waltz established the messaging group.
“The national security breach caused by sharing sensitive military information over an unclassified messaging application is compounded by the fact that both of you, who are prime targets for foreign intelligence services, were traveling in high-threat environments that pose significant counterintelligence risks to U.S. personnel and devices,” Schiff wrote.
A former federal prosecutor on numerous espionage cases, Schiff asked them 12 questions, including whether they were using Signal on their personal or business phones.
Schiff also asked Gabbard and Witkoff if anyone inspected their electronic devices prior to travel “for indicators of foreign surveillance activity or malware, including commercial spyware, consistent with guidance and warnings from elements of the Intelligence Community?”
Gabbard was not immediately available for comment through representatives. Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said Witkoff “did not have his personal device, nor did he have his government device with him. He was given a classified protected server by the United States government, and he was very careful about his communications when he was in Russia.”