What key Trump players in Signal chat flap are saying

The White House is continuing to downplay and deflect criticism over a Signal group chat among top Trump administration officials in which plans for an airstrike on Yemen were discussed just before being executed.

Democratic lawmakers are demanding an investigation and accusing key Trump defense and national security officials of revealing classified information about the Yemen plans in the March 15 group chat over an encrypted but unsecured app. The chat also included the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine, who was inadvertently invited to the channel.

The fallout continued to grow Wednesday as The Atlantic, which broke the story on Monday, published purported details discussed in the chat on the Yemen strike. In the new article, the magazine shared text messages sent to the group, including its editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth giving a “TEAM UPDATE” on pending times of the strike, “favorable” weather conditions in Yemen and that F-18 military jets and attack drones would carry out two strike packages.

“THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP,” Hegseth texted at one point, noting the military time of 1415 (2:15 p.m.) for the planned strike.

The magazine described Hegseth’s text message as “war plans.”

The magazine reported that Hegseth’s text message was sent to the group, unwittingly including Goldberg’s cellphone number, “31 minutes before the first U.S. warplanes launched” against militant Houthi targets.

“The idea that this information, if it was presented to our committee, would not be classified. Y’all know it was a lie. That’s ridiculous,” Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, said during a House Intelligence Committee hearing Wednesday as he grilled Trump officials who were on the Signal chat. “I’ve seen things much less sensitive be presented to us with high classification.”

Here is what Trump administration officials have said about the contents of the group chat:

Was classified information released in the group chat?

The White House and the top administration officials who were on the group chat titled “Houthi PC small group” continued to say Wednesday that no classified information was shared in the group chat.

“The conversation was candid and sensitive, but as the President and national security advisor stated, no classified information was shared. There were no sources, methods, locations, or war plans that were shared,” Trump’s Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, said at Wednesday’s House Intelligence Committee hearing. “This was a standard update to the national security cabinet that was provided alongside updates that were given to foreign partners in the region.”

While testifying at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Tuesday, Gabbard initially declined to answer questions about the group chat, even declining to confirm if she was part of it, saying, “I’m not going to get into specifics because this is currently under review by the National Security Council.”

But later in the hearing, Gabbard told the Senate committee members, “There was no classified material that was shared in the Signal chat.”

Seated next to Gabbard on Tuesday, CIA Director John Radcliffe immediately confirmed that he was part of the group chat when asked.

“So, my communications, to be clear, in a Signal message group were entirely permissible and lawful and did not include classified information, to be clear,” Radcliffe said.

Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., asked both Gabbard and Radcliffe to answer a series of questions about the contents of the group chat, including whether military units, weapons and timing were mentioned.

Both Gabbard and Radcliffe answered that they could not recall if those subjects came up. When pressed by Kelly, Gabbard later said, “I believe there was a discussion around targets in general,” and Radcliffe added, “I think that’s consistent with my recollection.”

In a social media post on X Wednesday, Hegseth slammed The Atlantic’s reporting, saying, “The Atlantic released so-called ‘war plans’ and those ‘plans’ include: No names. No targets. No locations. No units. No routes. No sources. No methods. And no classified information.”

In an interview Tuesday night on “The VINCE Show” — a conservative talk radio program hosted by Vince Coglianese — Trump highlighted the success of the Yemen attack and said, “No, and there weren’t details, and there was nothing in there that was compromised, and it had no impact on the attack, which was very successful.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt posted on X Wednesday, noting that The Atlantic’s headline on its follow-up article referred to “attack plans” instead of “war plans” the magazine initially reported.

“The Atlantic has conceded: these were NOT ‘war plans,'” Leavitt wrote in her post. “This entire story was another hoax written by a Trump-hater who is well known for his sensationalist spin.”

Goldberg and The Atlantic reported that they “held back specific information related to weapons and to the timing of the attacks that we found in certain texts.” But The Atlantic said it decided to release Hegseth’s text messages stating the types of weapons used and the timing of the strike to counter claims from Trump officials that no classified information was released in what it described in the article as “a massive Trump-administration security breach.”

“The statements by Hegseth, Gabbard, Ratcliffe, and Trump — combined with the assertions made by numerous administration officials that we are lying about the content of the Signal texts — have led us to believe that people should see the texts in order to reach their own conclusions,” the magazine’s follow-up article reads.

Was it wrong to conduct such a chat on the Signal app?

In his testimony Tuesday before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Ratcliffe said Signal was appropriately used by the group involved in the chat, including Vice President JD Vance.

“So that we’re clear, one of the first things that happened when I was confirmed as CIA Director was Signal was loaded onto my computer at the CIA, as it is for most CIA officers,” Ratcliffe said as he responded to questions from Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va. “One of the things that I was briefed on very early Senator was by the CIA Records Management folks about the use of Signal as a permissible work use. It is. That is a practice that preceded the current administration to the Biden administration.”

Ratcliffe added, “It is an end-to-end encryption. It is permissible to use to communicate and coordinate for work purposes, provided…provided Senator that any decisions that are made are also recorded through formal channels. So those were procedures that were implemented. My staff implemented those processes, followed those processes, complied with those processes.”

On Wednesday, Ratcliffe told the House Intelligence Committee that there was no misuse of the Signal app.

“I used an appropriate channel to communicate sensitive information. It was permissible to do so. I didn’t transfer any classified information,” Ratcliffe said. “And at the end of the day, what is most important is that the mission was a remarkable success.”

But several former defense and intelligence officials told ABC News that such exchanges should have never been made in such a group chat. They insisted that an exact location of a strike isn’t needed for information to be damaging to national security.

The details Hegseth shared in the chat were so sensitive that if leaked, they could have put troops carrying out the strike in danger because it gives the adversary time to prepare to fight back, the experts told ABC News.

“It was 100 percent classified,” Darrell Blocker, a former CIA field operative and ABC News contributor, said of the reported text exchange, based on his three decades with a security clearance.

Gabbard told the House Committee, “The Signal message app comes pre-installed on government devices. December of 2024, CISA [Certified Information Systems Auditor] stated, ‘We strongly urge highly targeted individuals to immediately review and apply best practices provided in the guidance to protect mobile communications, including consistent use of end-to-end encrypted messaging apps.'”

On Tuesday, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he didn’t know anything about Signal and wasn’t involved in the group chat.

“I hear it’s used by a lot of groups, I hear it’s used by the media a lot,” Trump said. “A lot of the military, I think, successfully. Sometimes people can get onto those things, that’s one of the prices you pay when you’re not sitting in the Situation Room with no phones, which is always the best, frankly. The best is to be there.”

How was Goldberg invited to the chat?

On Tuesday, Trump suggested that a staff member of national security adviser Mike Waltz inadvertently invited Goldberg to the group chat.

“And 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, I guess Goldberg’s number were called through the app, and somehow this guy ended up on the call,” Trump said in an interview with Newsmax.

But during an interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham Tuesday night, Waltz contradicted Trump’s statement, saying he was the one who accidentally invited Goldberg to the chat.

“Well, look, a staffer wasn’t responsible. And look, I take full responsibility. I built the group,” Waltz said, adding that the incident was “embarrassing.”

On Wednesday, Gabbard told the House Intelligence Committee that it was “a mistake” to add Goldberg to the chat.

During a news conference in Kingston, Jamaica, on Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed that he, too, was on the Signal chat and added, “Someone made a big mistake and added a journalist.”

Will there be an investigation?

Elon Musk and his team at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are reviewing how Goldberg was added to a Signal chat, a senior White House official told ABC News.

In his interview with Fox News Tuesday night, Waltz alluded to Musk’s involvement, saying, “I just talked to Elon on the way here — we have the best technical minds looking at how this happened.”

The White House official confirmed to ABC News that DOGE is involved and that the team is working with other teams to make communications “more secure and efficient.”

Leavitt said on FOX News that in addition to Musk and his team, the National Security Council “is all digging into this matter… to ensure this could never happen again.”

Asked by Sen. Warner during Tuesday’s Senate Intelligence Committee hearing whether the FBI was investigating the matter, FBI Director Kash Patel, who was not part of the chat, said, “Senator, I was just briefed about it late last night and this morning. I don’t have an update.”