Democrats call on defense secretary to resign over group chat scandal
“Classified information is classified for a reason. Sec. Hegseth was openly sharing classified materials on an insecure channel that potentially endangered service members. And then he lied about it. He should resign,” Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois said on X, just moments after questioning intelligence officials at Wednesday’s hearing.
Classified information is classified for a reason.
Sec. Hegseth was openly sharing classified materials on an insecure channel that potentially endangered service members.
And then he lied about it.
He should resign. https://t.co/ZoMoXSZgoQ
— Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi (@CongressmanRaja) March 26, 2025
“It is completely outrageous to me that administration officials come before us today with impunity, no acceptance of responsibility,” said Jason Crow of Colorado. He said the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, “must resign immediately. There can be no fixes, there can be no corrections until there is accountability.”
Other Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee rejected assertions by Tulsi Gabbard and John Ratcliffe that no classified material was included in the chat. They pointed to chat messages released by the Atlantic on Wednesday as evidence the leak could have jeopardized the mission’s success or endangered US service members’ lives.
Key events
Elon Musk’s team among officials investigating group chat leak, White House confirms
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that Elon Musk’s team is investigating how the Atlantic’s editor-in-chief was added to the group chat discussing a military strike in Yemen.
“As for your original question about who’s leading, looking into the messaging thread: the national security council, the White House counsel’s office, and also, yes, Elon Musk’s team,” she said during a press briefing.
“Elon Musk has offered to put his technical experts on this to figure out how this number was inadvertently added to the chat again to take responsibility and ensure this can never happen again,” Leavitt added.
She also said that the Signal messaging app, where senior Trump administration officials accidentally shared military plans in a group containing a journalist, is an approved app.
Leavitt said it is loaded on to government phones at the Pentagon, Department of State and Central Intelligence Agency.
Trump to announce auto tariffs amid scrutiny over Signal leak
Donald Trump will hold a press conference to announce tariffs on the auto industry today at 4pm, according to the White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
Wednesday’s press conference will be in the Oval Office.
National security adviser Michael Waltz said on Fox News that a staffer wasn’t responsible for adding the Atlantic’s editor-in-chief to the group chat and that he “takes full responsibility” for building the group and maintaining coordination.
“Have you ever had somebody’s contact that shows their name and then you have somebody else’s number?,” Waltz said.
“You have somebody else’s number on someone else’s contact, so of course I didn’t see this loser in the group,” he added, referring to the Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg.
The Guardian’s Peter Beaumont offers an analysis of what the latest Signal leak revelations expose:
The disclosure by the Atlantic of further devastating messages from the Signal chat group used by the Trump administration’s most senior security officials has nailed the lie that nothing that threatened the safety of US servicemen and women was shared on the group.
After the vague and evasive assertions by Trump officials at Monday’s Senate intelligence committee hearing, from the White House, and from the US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, that no war plans or classified material was shared, readers can make up their own minds.
Despite Hegseth’s angry denial, the exchanges in the leaked group chat did contain details of war planning, shared recklessly by him in advance of the attack on 15 March, on a messaging system and perhaps devices which he and others in the chat could not have been certain were secure.
Most damning is the fact that Hegseth sent details in advance of the F-18s and other aircraft that would take part in the attack, including the timing of their arrival at targets, and other assets that would be deployed.
As Ryan Goodman, a law professor who formerly worked at the Pentagon, put it after the latest release: “The Atlantic has now published the Signal texts with attack plans in response to administration denials. I worked at the Pentagon. If information like this is not classified, nothing is. If Hegseth is claiming he declassified this information, he should be shown the door for having done so.”
In attempting to cover up and diminish their culpability for a shocking breach of operational security – including the fact that two participants in the chat were overseas (including one in Moscow at the time) – the Trump administration has made the scandal immeasurably more serious than it was already.
At the most simple level, the pilots who flew on those strikes should rightly be furious that the most senior civilian defence official placed them in harm’s way.
Read the full analysis here:
Republican senators seek investigation into Signal leak scandal
José Olivares
In rare signs of unrest, top Republican senators are calling for an investigation into the Signal leak scandal and demanding answers from the Trump administration, as they raise concerns it will become a “significant political problem” if not addressed properly.
“This is what happens when you don’t really have your act together,” the Alaska Republican senator Lisa Murkowski told the Hill.
The Trump administration has been facing criticism from Democrats – and now Republicans – after Monday’s embarrassing revelation that a team of senior national security officials accidentally added a journalist to a private group chat on Signal, an encrypted messaging app. The group, which included the vice-president, JD Vance; the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth; the secretary of state, Marco Rubio; and others, discussed sensitive plans to engage in military strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen.
On Wednesday morning the Atlantic posted another tranche of messages that contained details of the attack on Yemen, including descriptions of targets, launch times and even the details of weather during the assault.
Senior national security officials testified before the Senate intelligence committee on Tuesday, where the national intelligence director, Tulsi Gabbard, and CIA director, John Ratcliffe, were grilled by lawmakers over the scandal. The national security officials said “no classified material” was shared in the chat. Republicans are now calling for investigations as well.
Read the full story by José Olivares here:
National security officials have wrapped up their testimonies before the House intelligence committee on Wednesday.
A closed session will be held at 2pm ET today.
Democrats call on defense secretary to resign over group chat scandal
“Classified information is classified for a reason. Sec. Hegseth was openly sharing classified materials on an insecure channel that potentially endangered service members. And then he lied about it. He should resign,” Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois said on X, just moments after questioning intelligence officials at Wednesday’s hearing.
Classified information is classified for a reason.
Sec. Hegseth was openly sharing classified materials on an insecure channel that potentially endangered service members.
And then he lied about it.
He should resign. https://t.co/ZoMoXSZgoQ
— Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi (@CongressmanRaja) March 26, 2025
“It is completely outrageous to me that administration officials come before us today with impunity, no acceptance of responsibility,” said Jason Crow of Colorado. He said the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, “must resign immediately. There can be no fixes, there can be no corrections until there is accountability.”
Other Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee rejected assertions by Tulsi Gabbard and John Ratcliffe that no classified material was included in the chat. They pointed to chat messages released by the Atlantic on Wednesday as evidence the leak could have jeopardized the mission’s success or endangered US service members’ lives.
Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Alina Habba, downplayed the controversy over the group chat that mistakenly included the Atlantic’s editor-in-chief.
“Look, it is what it is,” Habba told reporters. “At the end of the day, this is – in my opinion – something that they’re making a big to do about nothing. A reporter that is trying to get clout.
“We stand by Mike Waltz; he’s doing a tremendous job. I think this is a distraction.”
The Democratic representative Jimmy Gomez of California asked Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, and the CIA director, John Ratcliffe, whether the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, was drinking before the group chat discussions regarding war plans in Yemen were published.
“That’s an offensive line of questioning. The answer is, no,” Ratcliffe said. “I just wish in an annual threats hearing, where the American people want to hear about threats, that that’s what we would be talking about.”
Gabbard said: “Secretary Hegseth, in my experience, has continued to operate in the way that President Trump’s confidence in him inspires, which is in the best interest of the American people and our war fighters and ensuring our national security, I think it’s wrong to impugn him, especially at a point where he is not here to defend his own honor.”
The Republican senator Lindsey Graham defended Donald Trump and other members of his administration over their handling of the fiasco involving top national security officials discussing US military attack plans in Yemen in a group chat that inadvertently included the Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg.
“President Trump and his team have admitted that having a journalist in the group text was wrong, will be reviewed and falls in the category of ‘lessons learned’ so that it doesn’t happen again,” Graham said in a statement. “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’.
“However recent revelations about the content of the texts – while not discussing war plans per se – do in fact detail very sensitive information about a planned and ongoing military operation,” he added.
Judge targeted by Trump administration over deportations case will oversee group chat lawsuit
The US district court judge James Boasberg, whom the government has argued cannot be trusted with sensitive information in the Alien Enemies Act case, has been assigned to oversee a lawsuit alleging that government officials violated federal record-keeping laws when they used a group chat to discuss a planned military strike in Yemen, Politico reports.
“Messages in the Signal chat about official government actions, including, but not limited to, national security deliberations, are federal records and must be preserved in accordance with federal statutes, and agency directives, rules, and regulations,” the plaintiffs argue.
Chris Stein
The Illinois Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi had an aide hold up Signal messages released by the Atlantic that showed the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, shared in the group exact details of the strikes against the Houthis.
“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.”
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi referring to a blown up printout of the Houthi PC small group while questioning Trump intelligence officials in a House Intel hearing: pic.twitter.com/kkhHUoIvuZ
— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) March 26, 2025
Senator who grilled top Trump officials believes they lied when claiming no classified information was discussed
Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, who grilled top security officials during Tuesday’s Senate intelligence committee briefing, appeared on Morning Joe this morning to discuss the recently released text messages published by the Atlantic on Wednesday.
“Well it sure answers that the two witnesses I believe lied when they said, ‘Oh, nothing to see here, nothing classified,’” he said.
“You would have to be an idiot not to understand that what Jeffrey [Goldberg] just laid out is at a huge classification level. That if it had fallen into enemy hands and the Houthis had been able to realign their offenses, American lives could be lost,” he added.
Warner and other senators questioned Tulsi Gabbard, director of national intelligence, and CIA director John Ratcliffe about the group chat that discussed war plans for upcoming military strikes in Yemen. Gabbard said on Tuesday that “there was no classified material” in the Signal chat.
Chris Stein
As he had done before the Senate the day before, CIA director John Ratcliffe insisted he broke no rules and did not share classified information.
“I used an appropriate channel to communicate sensitive information. It was permissible to do so. 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 is what everyone should be focused on here, because that’s what did happen, not possibly could have happened,” Ratcliffe told the House intelligence committee.
Chris Stein
The House intelligence committee’s top Democrat Jim Himes asked Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, why she had told senators on Tuesday that no details of timing, targets or weapons were revealed in the Signal group chat.
The Atlantic this morning published the transcript of the chat, which showed that defense secretary Pete Hegseth shared such details with the chat’s participants ahead of the US military’s airstrikes against the Houthis in Yemen.
“My answer yesterday was based on my recollection, or the lack thereof, on the details that were posted there … What was shared today reflects the fact that I was not directly involved with that part of the Signal chat and replied at the end, reflecting the effects, the very brief effects that the national security advisor had shared,” Gabbard replied.
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