'The Atlantic' publishes Signal group chat that shared attack plans

WASHINGTON - The Atlantic has released excerpts of the Signal group chat that top U.S. security officials used to discuss plans for the military to attack the Houthis in Yemen – and inadvertently included a The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief on the thread. 

The revelation that President Donald Trump's most senior national security officials posted the specifics of a military attack to a chat group that included a journalist hours before the attack took place in Yemen has raised many questions. 

RELATED: Trump officials reportedly texted war plans in group chat that included magazine editor

Among them is whether federal laws were violated, whether classified information was exposed on the commercial messaging app, and whether anyone will face consequences for the leaks.

Here’s the latest: 

Who was included in the Signal group chat? 

What we know:

The chat group included 18 members, including Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic. The group, called "Houthi PC Small Group," likely for Houthi "principals committee" — was comprised of Trump’s senior-most advisers on national security, including Trump's national security adviser Mike Waltz, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and CIA Director John Ratcliffe. The National Security Council said the text chain "appears to be authentic."

Ratcliffe and Gabbard, who were asked to testify before the House Intelligence Committee as part of its annual review of threats facing the U.S., were grilled by Congress about the group chat and how a journalist ended up there. Another congressional hearing was scheduled for Wednesday morning. 

What we don't know:

It’s still unclear how Goldberg got added. Each agency principal named a staff member to be added to the chat, and Waltz named his staffer Alex Wong, as taking the lead in assembling the team that would monitor the attacks. It was not clear if Waltz himself, or a staffer managing Waltz's Signal account, sent Goldberg the invitation.

What is Signal? 

What we know:

Signal is a publicly available app that provides encrypted communications, but it can be hacked. It is not approved for carrying classified information. On March 14, one day before the strikes, the Defense Department cautioned personnel about the vulnerability of Signal, specifically that Russia was attempting to hack the app, according to a U.S. official, who was not authorized to speak to the press and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

One known vulnerability is that a malicious actor, if they have access to a person's phone, can link their own device to the user's Signal — and essentially monitor messages remotely in real time.

What we don't know:

It’s unclear how frequently the administration and the Defense Department use Signal for sensitive government communications, and whether those on the chat were using unauthorized personal devices to transmit or receive those messages. The department put out an instruction in 2023 restricting what information could be posted on unauthorized and unclassified systems.

At a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Tuesday, Gabbard would not say whether she was accessing the information on her personal phone or government-issued phone, citing an ongoing investigation by the National Security Council.

What did the Trump administration say about the group chat? 

Trump officials and the president downplayed the security implications of the group chat and repeatedly said no classified information was shared. 

What they're saying:

"Nobody was texting war plans. And that’s all I have to say about that," Pete Hegseth said Monday when a reporter asked about the fiasco. 

"There was no classified material that was shared in that Signal group," Gabbard told members of the Senate Intelligence Committee. 

President Trump said, "It wasn’t classified information."

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said: "As we have repeatedly stated, there was no classified information transmitted in the group chat. However, as the CIA Director and National Security Advisor have both expressed today, that does not mean we encourage the release of the conversation. This was intended to be a an [sic] internal and private deliberation amongst high-level senior staff and sensitive information was discussed. So for those reason [sic] — yes, we object to the release."

What was leaked on Signal

Dig deeper:

 The Atlantic decided to publish excerpts of the Signal text exchange after Trump officials repeatedly claimed that it wasn’t a classified conversation and accused The Atlantic of lying about what the texts said. 

Just hours before the attack on the Houthis in Yemen began, Hegseth shared details on the timing, targets, weapons and sequence of strikes that would take place.

"People should see the texts in order to reach their own conclusions," Goldberg and Atlantic staff writer Shane Harris wrote Wednesday. 

According to The Atlantic, here’s what Hegseth shared in the chat on Saturday, the day the attacks took place: 

At 11:44 a.m. eastern time, Hegseth posted in the chat, in all caps, "TEAM UPDATE:"

The text beneath this began, "TIME NOW (1144et): Weather is FAVORABLE. Just CONFIRMED w/CENTCOM we are a GO for mission launch." Centcom, or Central Command, is the military’s combatant command for the Middle East. The Hegseth text continues:

"1215et: F-18s LAUNCH (1st strike package)"

"1345: ‘Trigger Based’ F-18 1st Strike Window Starts (Target Terrorist is @ his Known Location so SHOULD BE ON TIME – also, Strike Drones Launch (MQ-9s)"

"1410: More F-18s LAUNCH (2nd strike package)"

"1415: Strike Drones on Target (THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP, pending earlier ‘Trigger Based’ targets)"

"1536 F-18 2nd Strike Starts – also, first sea-based Tomahawks launched."

"MORE TO FOLLOW (per timeline)"

"We are currently clean on OPSEC"—that is, operational security.

"Godspeed to our Warriors."

At 1:48 p.m., Waltz sent the following text, containing real-time intelligence about conditions at an attack site, apparently in Sanaa: "VP. Building collapsed. Had multiple positive ID. Pete, Kurilla, the IC, amazing job." 

The Atlantic said Waltz was praising Hegseth; General Michael E. Kurilla, the commander of Central Command; and the intelligence community, or IC. 

At 2 p.m., Waltz responded to Vance’s apparent confusion about the first text: "Typing too fast. The first target – their top missile guy – we had positive ID of him walking into his girlfriend’s building and it’s now collapsed."

"Excellent," Vance replied. 

"A good start," Ratcliffe said later. 

That’s when Waltz responded with a fist emoji, an American flag emoji and a fire emoji. 

"CENTCOM was/is on point," Hegseth text later that afternoon, then said that more attacks were coming. "Great job all. More strikes ongoing for hours tonight, and will provide full initial report tomorrow. But on time, on target, and good readouts so far."

Was the Signal group chat a national security breach? 

The other side:

According to The Atlantic, the U.S. defense secretary sent the attack plans in a group text that included an unknown phone number at 11:44 a.m. Saturday. 

RELATED: Pentagon announces investigation into leaks, which could include polygraph tests

"This was 31 minutes before the first U.S. warplanes launched, and two hours and one minute before the beginning of a period in which a primary target, the Houthi "Target Terrorist," was expected to be killed by these American aircraft," The Atlantic follow-up explained. 

"If this text had been received by someone hostile to American interests—or someone merely indiscreet, and with access to social media—the Houthis would have had time to prepare for what was meant to be a surprise attack on their strongholds. The consequences for American pilots could have been catastrophic."

Sen. Angus King, a Maine Independent, said he was flummoxed by Ratcliffe and Gabbard's assertion that no classified information was included in the chat.

"It’s hard for me to believe that targets and timing and weapons would not have been classified," he said.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called for a full investigation.

"This is one of the most stunning breaches of military intelligence I have read about in a very, very long time," Schumer, a New York Democrat, said in a floor speech Monday afternoon.

"If true, this story represents one of the most egregious failures of operational security and common sense I have ever seen," said Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, in a statement.

Read more from The Atlantic here. 

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