On March 13, The Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg was inadvertently added to a Signal group chat that included senior Trump administration officials, including Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. The group chat—titled “Houthi PC small group”—contained sensitive information about U.S. military operations. Two days after Goldberg was added to the chat, Hegseth sent details about upcoming airstrikes on Yemen, including specifics about weapon type, timing, and human targets. About two hours after Hegseth’s chat, the first of the air strikes began to fall on Yemen, killing at least 53 people. 

After the strikes were confirmed, Goldberg determined that the group chat was legitimate. He subsequently left the chat due to concern about the highly classified nature of the information being shared. Goldberg noted that the members of the group chat did not seem to notice that he had been added to the group chat or that he had left, despite the group’s creator being notified of Goldberg’s departure.

Concerns and Controversy

The existence of the group chat has raised concerns regarding national security and potential violations of federal law. National security and legal experts say that Michael Waltz, Trump’s national security advisor, may have breached the Espionage Act by creating the Signal group chat and communicating classified war planning information. The Espionage Act prohibits unauthorized access to or distribution of sensitive national defense information.

While Signal is commonly used by government officials for logistical coordination, it is generally not employed for classified military communications. Instead, the federal government maintains secure communication channels specifically for such discussions. Experts warn that classified messages on Signal could be vulnerable to leaks in the event of a cybersecurity breach or the theft of an official’s device.

​​Beyond security risks, the use of disappearing messages in discussions of official acts raises concerns about compliance with federal records retention laws. Under these laws, official communications related to government actions must be preserved as part of the public record. Some messages in the Signal chat, however, were reportedly set to be automatically deleted after a few weeks.

Trump Administration Response 

The Trump administration has denied that the group chat contained classified information or “war plans.” White House Press Secretary Katherine Levitt dismissed Goldberg’s report as a “hoax written by a Trump-hater.” When asked about the leak on March 24, President Trump denied knowledge of the situation and downplayed the controversy, stating that The Atlantic was “not much of a magazine.”

Officials in the administration have continued to assert that the group chat did not involve sensitive military details. Hegseth maintained that “nobody was texting war plans,” while Waltz took responsibility for accidentally adding Goldberg to the group chat, stating that the journalist’s number was listed under someone else’s name.

Full Transcript Released

In response to the Trump administration’s denial, The Atlantic published the full transcript of Hegseth’s attack plans on Yemen. These texts include information such as the types of aircraft being used in the strike and the timing of the strikes. In response to the release of the full transcript, the Trump administration and senior officials such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio have maintained that no classified information was leaked, nor would the leaked information have “put in danger anyone’s life or the mission.”