Journalists often dream of finding the right source who can share with them detailed information about the internal workings of the federal government. Few journalists would presume, however, that the ideal leaker might, in fact, be the head of the U.S. Armed Services. That appears to have been what happened, when the U.S. Secretary of Defense and former Fox News personality Pete Hegseth reportedly texted detailed operational war plans to the head editor of The Atlantic.
The editor in chief of the magazine, Jeffrey Goldberg, detailed in a new piece how it appears he was accidentally added to a message group on Signal by someone in the Trump White House. That message thread appears to have included prominent members of the Trump cabinet, including Hegseth, Vice President J.D. Vance, Director of the CIA John Ratcliffe, director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, national security advisor Michael Waltz, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, among others. Worse, the chat involved detailed discussions of then upcoming strikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen, one of America and Israel’s key enemies in the Middle East. Goldberg sets the scene like so:
The world found out shortly before 2 p.m. eastern time on March 15 that the United States was bombing Houthi targets across Yemen.
I, however, knew two hours before the first bombs exploded that the attack might be coming. The reason I knew this is that Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, had texted me the war plan at 11:44 a.m. The plan included precise information about weapons packages, targets, and timing.”
Goldberg’s story does not include the specifics of these operational plans, but it does include screenshots of the text message thread, including emojis apparently sent by high-level White House officials. It also appears to show the officials debating the timing of the attacks. When Vance reportedly brought up potential objections to the strike, Hegseth is alleged to have said the following:
Waiting a few weeks or a month does not fundamentally change the calculus. 2 immediate risks on waiting: 1) this leaks, and we look indecisive; 2) Israel takes an action first – or Gaza cease fire falls apart – and we don’t get to start this on our own terms.
Or 3), you leak the news yourself and look like a total idiot. The alleged texts include other gems, like Hegseth’s apparent promise to enforce “100%” operational security (which typically involves keeping plans secret) for the war strategy. Allegedly, the U.S. Defense Secretary texted:
We are prepared to execute, and if I had final go or no go vote, I believe we should. This [is] not about the Houthis. I see it as two things: 1) Restoring Freedom of Navigation, a core national interest; and 2) Reestablish deterrence, which Biden cratered. But, we can easily pause. And if we do, I will do all we can to enforce 100% OPSEC…I welcome other thoughts.
Hegseth is also alleged to have texted Goldberg what appeared to be “operational details” of the plan to bomb Yemen that, “had [they] been read by an adversary of the United States, could conceivably have been used to harm American military and intelligence personnel, particularly in the broader Middle East, Central Command’s area of responsibility.” These details included information about air strikes on Yemen, “information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing.”
Because he knew the time that the attacks were scheduled to start, Goldberg then waited for news of the airstrikes to see if the information in the text message thread was solid. Sure enough, the news soon broke that Yemen had been bombed. Goldberg writes:
If this Signal chat was real, I reasoned, Houthi targets would soon be bombed. At about 1:55, I checked X and searched Yemen. Explosions were then being heard across Sanaa, the capital city.
The White House seems to have confirmed that all of this actually happened, having told The Atlantic that the message thread appears to be “an authentic message chain, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain.” The spokesperson added that the thread was a “demonstration of the deep and thoughtful policy coordination between senior officials.” Gizmodo reached out to the White House for comment.
The White House did not appear to note the questionable legality of the text chain itself. Because if true, this whole scenario could be deeply illegal. Goldberg writes:
Conceivably, Waltz, by coordinating a national-security-related action over Signal, may have violated several provisions of the Espionage Act, which governs the handling of “national defense” information, according to several national-security lawyers interviewed by my colleague Shane Harris for this story…All of these lawyers said that a U.S. official should not establish a Signal thread in the first place. Information about an active operation would presumably fit the law’s definition of “national defense” information. The Signal app is not approved by the government for sharing classified information.
This is surely not one of the last scandals that will befall the new Trump White House but it may be one of the dumbest, and its not great for American national security either.
