Olivia Telecky-
On March 24th, The Atlantic released an article stating that the Trump administration had mistakenly added journalist Jeffery Goldberg to a group chat on the app Signal. This chat included detailed information on the weapons packages, timing, and targets of a military attack on the Houthi terrorist group operating in Yemen. It also allegedly stated the name of an active CIA intelligence officer- though this has been debated by John Ratcliffe, the director of the CIA who was also on the group chat. This chat included many higher-ups in the Trump administration such as Vice President JD Vance, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Secretary of State Marco Rubbio, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff- who used the chat while in the Kremliin- and a figure identified as S.M. who is believed to be Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller.
This leak provided interesting –and horrifying– details of the decision-making process for these top officials in this administration. Vice President Vance was on the chat openly disagreeing with the President, which is rarely done by any Vice President in public, and even stated that “I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now” and that “I think we are making a mistake”. There was some additional discourse on the optics of the attack, with Hegseth stating that messaging needs to “focus on 1) Biden failed & 2) Iran funded” and, ironically, arguing that waiting could be dangerous in case “this leaks, and we look indecisive”. There was also discussion on “European freeloading”, which concerningly may include Ukrainian aid, and how “pathetic” it is. Frighteningly, this conversation was halted when S.M. stated that “the president was clear” and as such, they need to go along with the actions advised by Trump without debate. Another negative aspect of this debate is that, from the texts that were released, there was no discussion on the potential civilian lives that could be lost in the bombing, and whether this was moral to do in order to “send a message.” 53 lives were potentially lost in the attack, but this has not been confirmed.
Concerningly, after they decided the attack was a go, Hegseth texted the timing of future attacks, the weapons packages that would be used, and their target. Had Goldberg released this information when it was sent out, American lives could have been lost, and the attack could have been a failure. It is incredibly dangerous for war plans to be released and, according to U.S. General Hawk, “Any advanced warning is something we are trying to protect.” While Signal is an encrypted app approved for government use, it is not secure enough for the nature of this conversation. First of all, it is open to the public, so any member could accidentally be added. Instead of a journalist, the information could have been sent to a Houthi or sympathiser. Secondly, even if the app isn’t breached, individual phones can be hacked and allow hackers to see anything on it, including Signal messages. Third, and most importantly, there was a warning issued to government officials against using Signal for any information that would be dangerous if it were leaked.
On March 25th, there was a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on worldwide threats. These threats included cyber attacks from Russia, Iran, and China, which adds to the idea that those in the group knew how dangerous the group chat was. Gabbard and Ratcliffe were in this hearing and under oath they testified that “I have not participated in any Signal group messaging that relates to any classified information at all,” Ratcliffe said, and “I have not participated in any Signal group chat, or any other chat on another app, that contained classified information,” Gabbard said. Both said that they would cooperate with an audit. However, when asked by Senator Heinrich, “Who determined that the contents of this discussion on Signal was not classified?” neither could answer. The truthfulness of their testimony was also called into question later on when chairman Senator Cotton claimed that they stated none of the information was classified from an intelligence perspective, as different agencies have different determinations of what is and isn’t classified, and Ratcliffe and Gabbard agreed. However, another senator pointed out that that isn’t true and said none of the information was classified. Gabbard also related that there “was discussion around targets in general.”
Many senators were appalled at the attitude of Ratcliffe and Gabbard in regard to the leak, specifically with their refusal to release the text messages and initial refusal to even discuss the matter while demanding none of it is classified. At one point, Senator Hoseth asked “This was a huge mistake, correct?” to which Ratcliffe responded, “No.” Senator Wyden stated that “obviously my colleagues and I feel very strongly about the war planning meeting over unclassified phones, obviously reckless, obviously dangerous, both the mishandling of classified information and the deliberate destruction of federal records are potential crimes that ought to be investigated immediately.”
The potential laws broken that Wyden was referring to were the Espionage Act, the Presidential Records Act, and the Federal Records Act. The Espionage Act enforces the proper release of national defense information, including non classified information. The accidental or ignorant release of this information is referred to as “gross negligence”, meaning that leaks don’t have to be purposeful to be illegal. The Presidential Records Act maintains that, as the president is acting in the name of the people, the people have a right to know what is being done. Thus, if something is a presidential record, it must be maintained. The Federal Records Act is similar in nature. Because these messages were automatically set to delete, if they weren’t being stored in a separate and secure database, this destruction of records could very well be illegal.
There are some theories that this chat was sent to Goldberg on purpose, but that seems unlikely. If the administration wanted to release information on their Yemen stance it would be easy to invite the press to do an interview. The Trump administration has also largely been cutting back on the relationship between the government and the media. A purposeful leak would also purposefully endanger the lives of military personnel on the Yemen mission. It seems much more likely that this was a simple error, something that many people are guilty of. But that doesn’t make it any less of a risk. After all, there might be other group chats that haven’t been leaked yet, especially if this is common practice in the administration, which could potentially be the largest security risk of them all.