Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in chief of The Atlantic, revealed the top officials appeared to mistakenly add him to a group chat on the encrypted messaging app Signal, in which they debated and then discussed details of attacks against Houthi rebels in Yemen.
The initial invite to the group apparently came from national security adviser Mike Waltz. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly sent the group details including weapons used, targets, and timing, two hours ahead of the attacks, which began March 15.
Others in the group were Vice President Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe.
In the stunning report, Goldberg claimed Waltz connected with him on Signal on March 11 and, two days later, he was invited to join a chain called the "Houthi PC small group," in which they discussed strikes against the Houthi militant group in Yemen — seemingly unaware of the journalist's presence in the group.
He wrote that he initially had strong doubts the text group was real as he could not believe that the U.S. national security leadership would communicate on Signal about imminent war plans, nor that Waltz "would be so reckless as to include him in the discussions with senior U.S. officials."
Brian Hughes, the spokesperson for the National Security Council, confirmed the message chain was authentic.
"This appears to be an authentic message chain, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain," wrote Hughes. "The thread is a demonstration of the deep and thoughtful policy coordination between senior officials. The ongoing success of the Houthi operation demonstrates that there were no threats to troops or national security."
News of the highly sensitive information breach quickly drew damning comments from the left, who lambasted the administration for both its carelessness in handling the communications and calling hypocrisy on Trump repeatedly demanding that Hillary Clinton be jailed for using a private email server for official business when she was secretary of State.
Expect more fallout in the days to come, as Democrats have called on congressional Republicans to have Hegseth testify before Congress and "be held accountable."
Read the full report at TheHill.com.
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