Reuters
Mike Waltz, the US National Security Adviser, has accepted responsibility for a group chat where senior officials discussed military actions in Yemen, inadvertently including a journalist.
“I take full responsibility. I created the group,” Waltz told Fox News on Tuesday, referring to it as “embarrassing”.
President Donald Trump and US intelligence leaders have minimized any security concerns, asserting that no classified information was exchanged.
Nevertheless, both Democrats and some Republicans are calling for an investigation into what many lawmakers are terming a significant breach of protocol.
Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of Atlantic magazine, indicated that he was unintentionally added to the Signal chat by a user named Mike Waltz.
In his article revealing the story, he mentioned seeing classified military strategies for US operations in Yemen, including details on weaponry, targets, and timing—just two hours before the airstrikes occurred. That information was not included in the published article.
During his Fox News interview, Waltz could not clarify how Goldberg got into the chat. Contradicting Trump’s comments, he stated that a member of his staff wasn’t to blame, and another unnamed individual was meant to replace Goldberg.
“We’ve enlisted the best technical minds to investigate how this occurred,” Waltz said, noting that Goldberg’s number was not saved on his phone.
“I can assure you, 100%, that I don’t know this person,” he added, mentioning that he had reached out to Elon Musk for assistance in understanding the incident.
President Trump downplayed the situation, referring to it as a “glitch” that had “no impact at all” on operations.
In a talk with Newsmax, Trump suggested that someone who worked at a lower level with Mike Waltz had Goldberg’s contact information.
During a Senate hearing on Tuesday, US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe denied that any classified material had been shared in the chat.
The Signal group chat also included members identified as Vice-President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Mark Warner, the Democratic vice-chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, remarked: “This Signal chat incident highlights a careless and grossly incompetent national security strategy from the Trump administration.”
Goldberg’s report stated that the officials in the chat discussed the possibility of Europe funding US protection of crucial shipping lanes.
“Whether it’s now or a few weeks from now, it will ultimately be the United States that has to reopen these shipping lanes,” wrote the account linked to Waltz on March 14.
He further mentioned that his team was collaborating with the defense and state departments “to calculate the associated costs and impose them on the Europeans,” following Trump’s directive.
At one point in the chat, the account identified as Vance expressed concern that the strikes would advantage the Europeans due to their dependency on those shipping lanes, saying: “I just dislike bailing Europe out once more.”
The user recognized as Hegseth replied shortly after: “VP: I completely share your disdain for European free-loading. It’s PATHETIC.”
This disclosure has caused significant alarm in Washington, leading to a lawsuit and raising questions about why senior officials were discussing sensitive topics on a potentially insecure civilian app.
National security experts argue that this leak represents a serious operational failure, while archival experts caution that it may breach presidential recordkeeping laws.
American Oversight, a non-partisan watchdog organization, has sued the officials involved in the chat, claiming violations of the Federal Records Act and Administrative Procedure Act.
The organization asserted that by configuring the chat to automatically delete messages, the officials violated a rule mandating that White House records be submitted to the National Archives.
The National Security Agency had warned employees just a month prior about vulnerabilities related to Signal, as per documents acquired by CBS, a partner of the BBC in the US.
With additional reporting by Kayla Epstein, Bernd Debusmann Jr, and Brandon Drenon
