President Trump on Tuesday characterized an extraordinary security violation as a minor violation, claiming that top administration officials had not shared the classified information as they discussed secret military plans in a group chat, including Atlantic editors.
“So this wasn't classified,” Trump said during a meeting with the US ambassador at the White House. “If it's categorized information now, that might be a little different, but I always say you have to learn from every experience.”
Trump also stood up to his national security adviser, Michael Waltz. Michael Waltz accidentally added journalist Jeffrey Goldberg to a signal app chat that includes Vice President J.D. Vance and others. In the chat, Defense Secretary Pete Hegses shared information on the timing, targets and weapons systems used in attacks against Yemen's Hauti militants.
“I think the way they attacked Michael was very unfair,” the president said of Waltz.
Former national security officials said they were skeptical that information shared by Heggs ahead of the March 15 strike was not classified given the life-or-death nature of the operation.
The President and Secretary of Defense have the ability to retrospectively assert that information will be declassified. However, authorities have refused to answer questions about details of the information or what they have determined accurately that it could be shared on Signal, a commercial encrypted app.
Hegses denounced Goldberg late Monday, saying he was “selling hoaxes over and over again.” However, in testimony in the Senate on Tuesday morning, the country's top two intelligence news sources confirmed that the exchange announced by the Atlantic was accurate.
During a White House meeting, when reporters asked the president about the leak, Trump repeatedly relied on Waltz to answer. Waltz praised Yemen's strike and attempted to redirect the focus primarily by attacking Goldberg.
“In particular, this is something I've never met, I don't know, I've never communicated,” he said.
Trump called Goldberg a “three bag.”
Later Tuesday, Waltz told host Laura Ingraham on Fox News about sharing the plan, saying “I'm fully responsible,” adding that he “builds a group,” and that he accidentally added Goldberg even though he claimed “I won't text him, he's not on my phone.”
But the overall response from Trump and his allies has downplayed the episode while holding the enemy accountable – a practice that has unfolded when the administration and its supporters sing to divert criticism throughout the president's political career. Trump dislikes admitting mistakes, and some Democrats have called on Waltz and Hegses to step down, but the president appears wary of firing his staff. Doing so could possibly puncture his argument that the early months of his second term were nothing but success.
“They gave this a lot.
The Trump administration's explanation was directly inconsistent with the statement given in Goldberg's explosive report on Monday in the Atlantic. In his article, Goldberg shared screenshots and quotes from the group chat, but said he chose not to share the most specific information on strike plans and combat damage assessments that can be used to hurt American military and intelligence agents.
Goldberg rejected the Trump administration's claim that the classified information was not shared, saying “they are wrong.”
Former national security authorities, who were involved in similar businesses in past administrations, said they tend to agree without seeing the message.
“No matter how small, details or facts about the operation will be categorized, especially before the operation is performed,” said Chris Meeger, a senior Pentagon official during the Biden administration. “There is no way such an operation would not have been categorized to recognize the existence of this mission.”
During a controversial Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Tuesday, Democrats denounced CIA director John Ratcliffe and National Intelligence Director Tarsi Gabbard.
Both were included in the signal chat in question, but Gabbard initially did not respond to questions from the senator about whether she was involved. When Mr. Ratcliffe confirmed his participation, she followed his lead.
“This drowsiness, this disrespect to our intelligence reporting agency, is completely unacceptable,” said Sen. Michael Bennett, a Democrat of Colorado, at a hearing scheduled for the presentation of the annual “global threat assessment.” “You need to do better.”
Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, a Democrat who is the vice-chairman of the committee, was visibly angry as the group chat intelligence agency and others declared that they had demonstrated “sloppy, careless, incompetent behavior.” Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, suggested that Hegses and Waltz should resign. Many Democrats have resurfaced clips of Waltz and other Trump allies nine years ago, criticizing the use of private email servers when Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State.
Trump has made these State Department messages a major issue in his 2016 campaign, calling for criminal investigations.
During the hearing, Ratcliffe and Gabbard acknowledged the sensitivity of information regarding the strike target, but insisted that no sensitive information from the area of ​​responsibility was shared.
Ratcliffe said it is up to Defence Secretary Hegses to decide which information can be shared in uncategorized chats.
Even if the information is not classified, disclosing it in an unsafe setting could violate the 1917 spying practice. Under that law, what is known as national defense information does not need to be classified for its exposure to harm the country's security. The Department of Justice rarely prosecutes violations without classified material. Trump has replenished his administration with loyalists who have little interest in challenging him or his officials.
“The Atlantic story is just part of the founding community of Natsec, which has run the same, tired gameplay since the past few years,” White House Communications Director Steven Cheung posted on social media.
He added, “The anti-Trump forces used harmless actions as weapons and turned them into false rage that fake news outlets could use to acquire misinformation. They tried to ensure that the American enemies didn't let these lies go away.”
Other Trump officials and allies also assaulted Goldberg.
However, several Republicans have expressed concern about Goldberg's inclusion in the chat, and admitted that it was a mistake. But most people said they wanted a full briefing before reaching a conclusion. Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said his panel would look into what happened but did not provide details.
“We're definitely worried,” Wicker told reporters, adding that he and his colleagues on the committee are “considering our options.”
Goldberg's report also raised concerns about using signals to manage administrators, messaging platforms that do not use this, and setting messages to be automatically deleted. The Presidential Records Act, enacted in 1978, states that the government “reserves and retains the full ownership, ownership and control of the president's records.”
Ratcliffe said the White House and cybersecurity and infrastructure security agencies have approved the use of high-ranking officials' signals, suggesting that it is more secure than a regular phone line because it is encrypted. One of China's leading intelligence communications agencies plunged into the unencrypted networks of major US telecommunications companies last year, allowing access to phones and some texts. Officials say the moves to encourage the use of signals and the use of other encrypted apps are part of an effort to keep China and other enemies out of receiving regular phone calls.
However, the signal is not approved for classified conversations. These are only to be done on special safe lines, and callers are speaking from within the safe facility.
One of Signal's security features is that users can set messages to be deleted after a certain period of time. On Tuesday, the US superintendent of Watchdog Group filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washington seeking an order from a judge to hold all signal messages for the group chat in question.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt opposed concerns about the use of signals.
“The White House Advisors Office provides guidance on many different platforms to ensure that President Trump's top officials communicate as safely and efficiently as possible,” she wrote without naming them.
Trump said he likes officials to meet in person, but he defended the use of signals and suggested the mistakes that have happened to the app rather than the Waltz.
“What's not perfect is the equipment and technology,” he said.
Report contributed Adam Goldman, Julian Burns, Robert Jimison and Chris Cameron.
