Democrats demand answers over White House’s ‘careless’ Signal blunder

Democratic senators demanded answers from leaders of the US intelligence community on Tuesday on how the top editor of the Atlantic was added to a group chat discussing airstrikes in Yemen, arguing that the “sloppy, careless” leak put national security at risk.

The unusual story broke on Monday, when the Atlantic published a piece by editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg who said he had been added to the group on messaging app Signal, and watched as accounts that appeared to match top Trump administration officials, including vice-president JD Vance and secretary of state Marco Rubio, debated and then coordinated a wave of bombings targeting the Houthis in Yemen.

Donald Trump has defended his national security adviser Michael Waltz, who Goldberg said invited him into the group.

Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, and John Ratcliffe, the CIA director, both of whom were also in the group, appeared on Tuesday before the Senate intelligence committee for an annual hearing on threats facing the United States, which Democrats used to accuse them of failing to protect sensitive details of US military operations.

“I think this is one more example of the kind of sloppy, careless, incompetent behavior, particularly towards classified information,” the committee’s vice-chair Mark Warner said.

Gabbard, a former congresswoman who has been accused of sympathizing with Russia and other American adversaries, declined to answer many questions about the chat group, initially saying “this is currently under review by the national security council”.

“The discussion that took place in that Signal chat group was a conversation reflecting national security leaders and the vice-president around the president’s objectives,” she later said, while declining to answer if she would have approved details of such a conversation to be revealed publicly, or if she was using a personal or work phone to participate in the group.

Under questioning from Warner, Ratcliffe acknowledged that he was in the group but said the app was approved for use by government officials under the Biden administration and it was loaded on his devices when he became CIA director.

“It is permissible to use to communicate and coordinate for work purposes, provided … that any decisions that are made are also recorded through formal channels,” Ratcliffe said.

“My communications, to be clear, in a Signal message group were entirely permissible and lawful and did not include classified information.”

However, National Public Radio reported on Tuesday that the defense department warned last week not to use Signal because of security issues, even for unclassified information. The warning explained that Russian hacking groups were targeting a feature of the app to gain access to its users’ encrypted conversations.

Another key question was the physical location of Gabbard and of Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, during their participation in the chat – as well as what devices they used, including in Russia.

Flight records and Russian media reports suggest Witkoff, who is also involved in mediating talks between Ukraine and Russia, appears to have been in Moscow during the period of the Signal chat.

For her part, Gabbard admitted during the session that she had also been abroad while the chat group was active. She declined to answer whether she had used a personal or government device to participate, citing an White House review she said was ongoing.

The DNI’s webpage and reports show that Gabbard was on a week-long visit to Japan, Thailand, and India during the period in question.

Democratic senator Michael Bennet took Ratcliffe to task for what he described as his careless approach to cybersecurity. “You’re the CIA director. Why didn’t you call out that [Goldberg] was present on the Signal thread?” Bennet asked.

“This is just a normal day at the CIA, where we chat about this kind of stuff over Signal. In fact, it’s so normal that the last administration left it here for us,” the Colorado senator said.

“This swampiness, this incompetence, this disrespect for our intelligence agencies and the personnel who work for him is entirely unacceptable. It’s an embarrassment. You need to do better.”

FBI director Kash Patel said he had become aware only the evening prior of the leak, and could not say if his agency would investigate.

Republicans generally avoided discussing the Signal chat, or said they would address it in a closed session of the committee. After retaking the majority in the Senate last November, the GOP has quickly confirmed Trump’s cabinet nominees and shown little interest in defying the president.

Near the hearing’s conclusion, Democratic senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia asked the CIA director if he would agree the leak as a “huge mistake” – to which Ratcliffe replied “no”.

“This is utterly unprofessional. There’s been no apology. There has been no recognition of the gravity of this error,” Ossoff said. “And by the way, we will get the full transcript of this chain and your testimony will be measured carefully against its content.”