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National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard confirmed Tuesday morning during information shared with the Senate Intelligence Committee that no classified material was leaked in a high-level Signal messaging conversation allegedly shared by accident with a member of the press by National Security Advisor Mike Waltz’s office.
“There was no classified material that was shared in that Signal chat,” she stated.
The unusual situation gained national attention on Monday, when The Atlantic Editor-in-Chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, published a story alleging that he had been added to a group chat with high-level officials discussing U.S. military action against Houthis in Yemen, including “precise information about weapons packages, targets, and timing.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt seemed to confirm the authenticity of the leaked chat early Tuesday morning, but assured Americans no “war plans” were discussed, and neither was any “classified material” shared.
“As the National Security Council stated, the White House is looking into how Goldberg’s number was inadvertently added to the thread,” she said, echoing a prior statement from the agency.
“Thanks to the strong and decisive leadership of President Trump, and everyone in the group, the Houthi strikes were successful and effective. Terrorists were killed and that’s what matters most to President Trump,” she added.
During her testimony on Tuesday, Director Gabbard also pointed out that “there’s a difference between inadvertent release versus malicious leaks of classified information” and confirmed on several occasions, despite constant interruptions from Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., during her testimony, that no classified material was included in this chat.
Further, another agency leader during the testimony pointed out that Signal messaging was considered a “permissible” mode of communication for officials.
“My communications…were entirely permissible and lawful and did not include classified information,” said CIA Director John Ratcliffe – who was allegedly included in the leaked chat – while answering questions from Warner.
Ratcliffe said Signal had been loaded onto his computer after he was confirmed as the director of the CIA, and that he had been briefed that using the app was “permissible” for work use.
In the wake of this incident, President Donald Trump has also stood strongly by National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, whom he firmly defended as a “good man.”
On Tuesday, the president addressed the leaked messages directly for the first time and indicated that it wasn’t Waltz himself who was responsible for the snafu.
“Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man,” President Trump told NBC.
According to the president, Goldberg’s number was added by a staffer. “It was one of Michael’s people on the phone,” Trump said.
Despite rumblings in the press, President Trump told NBC that the leak had “no impact at all” on military action or planning in Yemen, describing it as “the only glitch in two months” of his second term.
Further, Department of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth discussed the story briefly with reporters in Hawaii, hitting back at Goldberg for being “a guy that peddles in garbage.”
He elevated the outstanding efforts of the U.S. military against Houthi terrorists at the command of President Donald Trump, and strongly refuted any mainstream claims that “war plans” were allegedly shared in any form in the Signal chat. He said, “I’ve heard [how] I was characterized. NOBODY was texting war plans. And that’s all I have to say about that.”
During Tuesday’s hearing before the intelligence committee, FBI Director Kash Patel was asked whether he had launched an “investigation” into the Signal chat leak. He said he had only found out about the situation “late last night” and had no update on that point at this time.
