白宫继续淡化和转移对信号的批评群聊特朗普政府高级官员在执行之前讨论了空袭也门的计划。
民主党议员要求进行调查，并指责特朗普国防和国家安全部门的主要官员在3月15日的群聊中通过一个加密但不安全的应用程序泄露了有关也门计划的机密信息。聊天对象还包括《大西洋》杂志的主编，无意中被邀请到该频道。
周三，随着周一披露此事的《大西洋月刊》(The Atlantic)公布了据称是在关于也门袭击的聊天中讨论的细节，余波继续扩大。在这篇新文章中，该杂志分享了发给该组织的短信，包括其主编杰弗里·戈德堡(Jeffrey Goldberg)，国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯(Pete Hegseth)就即将到来的打击时间提供了“团队更新”，也门的“有利”天气条件以及F-18军用喷气式飞机和攻击无人机将进行两次打击。
“这是第一枚炸弹肯定会落下的时候，”海格塞斯一度发短信说，并指出计划中的袭击的军事时间是14:15(下午2:15)。
该杂志将海格塞斯的短信描述为“战争计划”。
该杂志报道称，Hegseth的短信被发送给该组织，无意中包括了Goldberg的手机号码，“在第一架美国战机对胡塞武装目标发动攻击前31分钟”。
“我们的想法是，这些信息，如果提交给我们的委员会，就不会保密。你们都知道那是个谎言。这太荒谬了，”得克萨斯州民主党众议员华金·卡斯特罗(Joaquin Castro)周三在众议院情报委员会的听证会上说，当时他正在盘问参加信号聊天的特朗普官员。"我见过不太敏感的东西以高等级呈现在我们面前."
以下是特朗普政府官员对群聊内容的描述:
群聊里发布了机密信息吗?
参加名为“胡塞个人电脑小组”的群聊的白宫和高级政府官员周三继续表示，群聊中没有分享机密信息。
“对话是坦率而敏感的，但正如总统和国家安全顾问所说，没有机密信息被分享。特朗普的国家情报总监图尔西·加巴德(Tulsi Gabbard)在周三的众议院情报委员会听证会上说，“没有共享的来源、方法、地点或战争计划。”。“这是国家安全内阁的标准更新，与该地区外国合作伙伴的更新一起提供。”
周二，在参议院情报委员会的听证会上作证时，加巴德最初拒绝回答有关群聊的问题，甚至拒绝确认她是否是群聊的一部分，他说，“我不会透露细节，因为这目前正在接受国家安全委员会的审查。”
但在听证会的晚些时候，加巴德告诉参议院委员会成员，“在信号聊天中没有共享的机密材料。”
周二，坐在加巴德旁边的中情局局长约翰·拉德克利夫(John Radcliffe)在被问及时，立即证实他是群聊的一部分。
“所以，我的通信，明确地说，在一个信号信息组是完全允许和合法的，不包括机密信息，明确地说，”拉德克利夫说。
亚利桑那州参议员马克·凯利要求加巴德和拉德克利夫回答一系列关于群聊内容的问题，包括是否提到了军事单位、武器和时间。
Gabbard和Radcliffe都回答说他们不记得这些话题是否出现过。当凯利追问时，加巴德后来说，“我相信当时围绕目标进行了讨论，”拉德克利夫补充道，“我认为这与我的回忆一致。”
在X周三的一篇社交媒体帖子中，Hegseth抨击了《大西洋》的报道，他说，“大西洋发布了所谓的‘战争计划’，这些‘计划’包括:没有名字。没有目标。没有地点。没有单位。没有路线。没有来源。没有方法。也没有机密信息。”
在周二晚上接受“文斯秀”(The VINCE Show)采访时，文斯·科格里安塞(Vince Coglianese)主持的保守派脱口秀节目特朗普强调了也门袭击的成功，并说，“没有，没有细节，那里没有任何妥协，对袭击没有影响，袭击非常成功。”
白宫新闻秘书卡罗琳·莱维特(Karoline Leavitt)周三在X上发帖，指出《大西洋月刊》后续文章的标题提到了“攻击计划”，而不是该杂志最初报道的“战争计划”。
“大西洋已经承认:这些不是‘战争计划’，”莱维特在她的帖子中写道。“这整个故事是一个讨厌特朗普的人写的又一个骗局，他以其耸人听闻的说法而闻名。”
戈德堡和《大西洋月刊》报道说，他们“隐瞒了我们在某些文本中发现的与武器和袭击时间有关的具体信息。”但《大西洋月刊》表示，它决定发布海格塞思的短信，说明使用的武器类型和袭击的时间，以反击特朗普官员的说法，即没有发布机密信息，文章称这是“特朗普政府的大规模安全漏洞”。
该杂志的后续文章写道:“黑格斯、加巴德、拉特克利夫和川普的声明，加上许多政府官员声称我们在信号文本的内容上撒谎，让我们相信人们应该看到这些文本，才能得出自己的结论。”
在信号应用上进行这样的聊天有错吗?
拉特克利夫星期二在参议院情报委员会作证时说，包括副总统万斯在内的参与聊天的团体恰当地使用了信号。
“所以我们很清楚，当我被确认为中央情报局局长时，发生的第一件事就是信号被加载到我在中央情报局的电脑上，正如大多数中央情报局官员一样，”拉特克利夫在回答弗吉尼亚州民主党参议员马克·华纳的问题时说，“我很早就向参议员简要介绍了中央情报局记录管理人员关于使用信号作为允许的工作用途的事情。确实是。这是现任政府到拜登政府之前的做法。”
拉特克利夫补充道，“这是一种端到端的加密技术。允许出于工作目的使用进行沟通和协调，前提是……参议员，前提是所做的任何决定也通过正式渠道进行记录。这些就是实施的程序。我的员工实施这些流程，遵循这些流程，遵守这些流程。”
周三，拉特克利夫告诉众议院情报委员会，没有滥用信号应用程序。
“我使用了适当的渠道来传达敏感信息。这样做是允许的。我没有传递任何机密信息，”拉特克利夫说。“最终，最重要的是这次任务取得了巨大的成功。”
但几位前国防和情报官员告诉美国广播公司新闻，这样的交流不应该在这样的群聊中进行。他们坚称，破坏国家安全的信息不需要确切的袭击地点。
专家告诉ABC新闻，Hegseth在聊天中分享的细节非常敏感，如果泄露，他们可能会将实施打击的部队置于危险之中，因为这给了对手准备反击的时间。
“这是百分之百的机密，”前中情局外勤人员和美国广播公司新闻撰稿人达雷尔·布洛克(Darrell Blocker)说，根据他30年的安全许可，他谈到了报道的文本交流。
加巴德告诉众议院委员会，“信号消息应用程序预装在政府设备上。2024年12月，CISA(注册信息系统审计员)表示，“我们强烈敦促目标明确的个人立即审查并应用指南中提供的最佳实践来保护移动通信，包括持续使用端到端加密消息应用。”"
周二，特朗普在椭圆形办公室告诉记者，他对Signal一无所知，也没有参与群聊。
“我听说它被很多团体使用，我听说它被媒体大量使用，”特朗普说。“我认为，很多军事行动是成功的。有时候，人们可以得到这些东西，这是当你不是坐在没有电话的情况室里时你要付出的代价之一，坦率地说，这总是最好的。最好是在那里。”
戈德堡是如何受邀参加电话会议的?
周二，特朗普暗示国家安全顾问迈克·华尔兹(Mike Waltz)的一名工作人员无意中邀请了戈德堡加入群聊。
特朗普在接受Newsmax采访时表示:“我们认为，这是有人在获得许可的情况下通话，有人与迈克·华尔兹在一起，在较低的级别上为迈克·华尔兹工作，我猜戈德堡的号码是通过应用程序拨打的，不知何故，这个人最终接通了电话。”。
但在周二晚上接受福克斯新闻频道的劳拉·英格拉哈姆采访时，华尔兹反驳了川普的说法，称川普是不小心邀请戈德堡参加聊天的人。
“嗯，听着，一个职员没有责任。听着，我负全责。我建立了这个团体，”华尔兹说，并补充说这一事件“令人尴尬”
周三，加巴德告诉众议院情报委员会，将戈德堡加入聊天是“一个错误”。
周三，在牙买加金斯敦举行的新闻发布会上，美国国务卿马尔科·卢比奥(John Kerry)证实，他也在信号聊天中，并补充说，“有人犯了一个大错误，增加了一名记者。”
会有调查吗?
一位白宫高级官员告诉ABC新闻，政府效率部(DOGE)的Elon Musk和他的团队正在审查戈德堡是如何被添加到信号聊天中的。
在周二晚上接受福克斯新闻频道采访时，华尔兹提到了马斯克的参与，他说，“我刚刚在来这里的路上和埃隆谈过——我们有最好的技术头脑在研究这是如何发生的。”
白宫官员向ABC新闻证实，DOGE参与其中，该团队正在与其他团队合作，以使通信“更加安全和有效”
莱维特在福克斯新闻上说，除了马斯克和他的团队，国家安全委员会“正在深入调查此事...以确保这种事情不会再次发生。”
在周二的参议院情报委员会听证会上，当沃纳被问及美国联邦调查局是否正在调查此事时，没有参与谈话的美国联邦调查局局长卡什·帕特尔(Kash Patel)说，“参议员，我昨晚和今天早上才得知此事。我没有更新。”
What key Trump players in Signal chat flap are saying
The White House is continuing to downplay and deflect criticism over a Signalgroup chatamong 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," said 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 call?
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."
