Many are wondering if action will be taken against several top-ranking officials in the Trump administration after the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic was mistakenly added to a group chat where war plans were shared.
Jeffery Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, wrote in a piece on Monday detailing what recently happened.
Goldberg claims that he was added to a group chat on the private messaging app Signal in which top officials debated and discussed details of several attacks that were to be carried out in Yemen and then eventually happened earlier this month.
Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the National Security Council, confirmed that the message chain detailed in Goldberg’s article was authentic. President Trump has said that he knew nothing of the report of the group chat.
“At this time, the message thread that was reported appears to be authentic, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain,” Hughes said.
Those in the group chat were Vice President Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, national security adviser Mike Waltz, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe.
Now, many are wondering if action will be taken against any of the top officials who were in the group chat. Political analyst Blois Olson shared with News Talk 830 WCCO that a lot still remains up in the air, even with confirmation that the messages Goldberg received were authentic.
Olson noted that it would be important to see how the officials who were in the chat were using the platform.
“We’ve seen elected officials on Signal or some of the encrypted services,” Olson said. “Now, are they using that for the government, or is that just personal?”
So, what will happen to the officials?
No plans have been shared yet, but many are looking to past comments made about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton from some of those who were in the group chat. Clinton infamously used a private email server while in her role, sparking outrage from her political opponents.
During a November 2016 Fox News appearance, Hegseth said what Clinton did was “criminal.”
“People have gone to jail for 1/100th of what – even 1/1,000th of what Hillary Clinton did,” he said.
In an August 2015 interview with Fox News, he also noted that classified information should only be viewed in a secure room to protect it from unauthorized access.
“You most certainly know you shouldn’t be talking about it or passing it on in an email, particularly to a private server like the one she had. What they did is reckless – it’s complete recklessness and incompetence,” he said at the time.
“Nobody is above the law. Not even Hillary Clinton – even though she thinks she is,” Rubio said on Fox News in January 2016.
Goldberg claimed that Waltz had connected with him on Signal on March 11. Two days later, he said he was invited to join a chat called the “Houthi PC small group.” In the chat, the officials discussed plans, appearing to not know Goldberg was present in the chat.
Waltz has also been critical of Democrats over their use of communication devices. In June 2023, he took a shot at former National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.
“Biden’s sitting National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan sent Top Secret messages to Hillary Clinton’s private account. And what did DOJ do about it? Not a damn thing,” Waltz tweeted at the time.
So, what was sent in the group chat?
Goldberg shared in his article that Hegseth sent details on the weapons used, targets, and timing two hours before the attacks kicked off on March 15, the report said.
The White House has responded to criticism over the report by saying that the attack on the Houthis was successful.
“The thread is a demonstration of the deep and thoughtful policy coordination between senior officials,” Hughes said. “The ongoing success of the Houthi operation demonstrates that there were no threats to our servicemembers or our national security.”