House Democrats will on Wednesday demand answers from two US intelligence chiefs who were revealed as members of a group chat used by Trump administration officials to discuss plans to bomb Yemen in the presence of a journalist, just hours after the full transcript of the conversation was released.
News of the group chat’s existence and the inclusion of Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of the Atlantic, has prompted outrage on Capitol Hill at a convenient time for Democrats, who are in the minority in both the Senate and House of Representatives and reeling from Donald Trump’s return to the White House two months ago.
Responding to attacks on Goldberg’s reputation from Trump and other top officials as well as their claims that no classified information was revealed, the Atlantic published the texts in their entirety on Wednesday morning. The messages show that the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, shared in the group precise timings of the air strikes, which the outlet notes could have put US pilots at risk if they had been intercepted.
The messages are expected to come up when the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, and the CIA director, John Ratcliffe, both participants in the group chat on the Signal app, give annual testimony to the House intelligence committee with their assessments of the threats facing the United States.
“I am horrified by reports that our most senior national security officials, including the heads of multiple agencies, shared sensitive and almost certainly classified information via a commercial messaging application, including imminent war plans,” the Democratic ranking member Jim Himes said.
“These individuals know the calamitous risks of transmitting classified information across unclassified systems, and they also know that if a lower-ranking official under their command did what is described here, they would likely lose their clearance and be subject to criminal investigation. The American people deserve answers, and I plan to get some on Wednesday at the intelligence committee’s worldwide threats hearing.”
When Ratcliffe and Gabbard appeared a Senate intelligence committee hearing on Tuesday, Democrats questioned them extensively about the Signal group, while Republicans either avoided the topic or said they would ask about it in a private session.
Gabbard declined to answer many questions, saying the matter was under investigation by the national security council, while Ratcliffe argued that using Signal was permitted by government rules. However, both declined to give many specifics, including how Goldberg came to be added to the group.
“You’re the CIA director. Why didn’t you call out that [Goldberg] was present on the Signal thread?” the Democratic senator Michael Bennet asked Ratcliffe at one point.
