The Atlantic magazine has published new messages from the Houthi strike chat between key Trump officials that its editor-in-chief was mistakenly added to. Follow the latest here – and listen to the Trump 100 podcast as you scroll.
Wednesday 26 March 2025 17:19, UK
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Karoline Leavitt is speaking now in a press briefing.
She has immediately gone on the attack, personally going after The Atlantic journalist Jeffrey Goldberg, as well as the Democrats and what she claimed were its “allies in the media”.
“The mainstream media continues to be focused on a sensationalised story.”
She also detailed specifics of the Houthi attack that she claimed people should be more focused on.
“Several Houthi leaders were killed,” Leavitt said.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt is holding a briefing now after the new revelations in Signalgate today.
Watch live in the stream at the top of the page – and we’ll bring you the latest here too.
The encrypted messaging platform Signal has been at the centre of the furore in Washington.
A competitor to the likes of Meta’s WhatsApp, it has found itself a key part of a US national security row.
National Security Agency (NSA) director General Timothy Haugh spoke about risks associated with the platform during the Intelligence Committee hearing earlier today.
Under questioning from Democratic representative Jason Crow, Haugh said an advisory on how to use Signal was sent to NSA employees.
“We put out an advisory on how to use the Signal app and other encrypted applications, because we do encourage our employees and their families to use encrypted apps,” he said.
“Because there’s risk to that app?” Crow asked.
To which Haugh responded: “There are.”
Some reporting to bring you from across the pond now.
The information shared by defence secretary Pete Hegseth on the Signal chat was highly classified at the time he wrote it, according to CNN.
It cited a US defence official familiar with the operation and another source briefed on it afterward.
“These are operational plans that are highly classified in order to protect the service members,” the defence official reportedly said.
Experts previously told Sky News there was a chance that the White House had retroactively declassified the information on the group to stand up its defence that nothing classified was shared on Signal.
Intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard is answering questions in congress.
She said yesterday she was not aware of any discussion relating to weapons packages, targets or timings shared on the Signal group chat.
Congressional representatives haven’t taken well to it today after The Atlantic published messages revealing specifics on weapons packages and timings.
Asked if she stood by her comments, Gabbard said the second Atlantic story was a “refresher”.
She also admitted the inclusion of a reporter in the Signal chat was a “mistake”.
“It was a mistake that a reporter was inadvertently added,” she added.
White House attack line
Gabbard repeated a previous phrase Mike Waltz used in his response to the story – perhaps showing an agreed White House line.
“There were no sources, methods or locations [shared],” she said.
Republican Greg Steube also repeated this phrase in questioning.
Pete Hegseth has issued a response to the latest Atlantic article.
“So, let’s me get this straight [sic]. The Atlantic released the so-called ‘war plans’ and those ‘plans’ include: No names. No targets. No locations. No units. No routes. No sources. No methods. And no classified information.
“Those are some really s****y war plans.
“This only proves one thing: Jeff Goldberg has never seen a war plan or an ‘attack plan’ (as he now calls it).”
Does his defence hold up? Here’s his Signal message…
A reminder that the article quoted Hegseth as posting operational details of the plan, including weapon packages, targets and timing.
He texted: “1215et: F-18s LAUNCH (1st strike package)”.
“1345: ‘Trigger Based’ F-18 1st Strike Window Starts (Target Terrorist is @ his Known Location so SHOULD BE ON TIME – also, Strike Drones Launch (MQ-9s)”.
Further texts by the Pentagon chief followed, the magazine reported: “1410: More F-18s LAUNCH (2nd strike package)”.
“1415: Strike Drones on Target (THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP, pending earlier ‘Trigger Based’ targets)”.
He also posted: “1536 F-18 2nd Strike Starts – also, first sea-based Tomahawks launched”. And then: “MORE TO FOLLOW (per timeline)”.
More to bring you from the Intelligence Committee hearing now.
Some of the most senior defence and intelligence officials in Trump’s administration are still getting grilled.
“Excuse after excuse, after excuse…” the committee heard at one point as one representative described the responses to questioning on the security breach.
Congressmen accuses Trump officials of lying
Representative Joaquin Castro said it was a “lie” to claim information discussed on the Signal chat was not classified.
He asked national security agency director Timothy Haugh whether similar information intercepted from China or Russia would have been considered classified information.
“We would classify based off of our sources and methods,” Haugh said.
The Democrat said that “the idea that this information, if it was presented to our committee, would not be classified, y’all know is a lie”.
“That’s ridiculous. I’ve seen things much less sensitive be presented to us with high classification, and to say that it isn’t is a lie to the country.”
Calls for Hegseth’s resignation
Intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard faced questioning from representative Raja Krishnamoorthi at one point.
The Democrat read out definitions of what is classified information from an executive order and a government manual – arguing such information in the Signal chat qualified.
Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse, however, argued that such information was only classified based off its context.
Krishnamoorthi, stood in front of a huge print out of the text chain, disagreed.
“Hegseth needs to resign immediately,” he went on.
“He needs to resign and there needs to be a full investigation as to whether other Signal chats are being used in this government,” he added.
Still no official investigation
Gabbard was asked whether there would be an investigation into the breach and said that was her “intent”.
But she stopped short of confirming one would definitely take place, saying the national security council was in charge of looking into the issue.
The Espionage Act, the law that often has been used in criminal cases involving leaks or mishandling of classified information, contains a provision making it crime to disclose national defence secrets “through gross negligence”.
The law does not require that the information be classified, because it was written before the classification system existed.
The law refers simply to “national defence information”.
The specific provision reads:
“Whoever, being entrusted with or having lawful possession or control of any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blue print, plan, map, model, note, or information, relating to the national defence, through gross negligence permits the same to be removed from its proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of his trust, or to be list, stolen, abstracted, or destroyed, shall be punished by a fine of not more than $10,000, or by imprisonment for not more than two years, or both.”
18 USC 793: Gathering, transmitting or losing defence information
The journalist who broke the group chat story has explained why he shared the Pete Hegseth texts this morning.
Jeffrey Goldberg told MSNBC: “At a certain point, the administration is saying that there’s nothing classified or secret or sensitive in these – so I just felt, you know, let our readers decide for themselves”.
He added that “we didn’t do this lightly”.
Allies of the president and his cabinet have been fiercely defending themselves and attempting to discredit Goldberg.
But The Atlantic editor was keen to make sure that, in the midst of all the classic team Trump noise, their mistakes are plain to see.
“What we’re reacting to here is Trump administration officials saying that there’s nothing sensitive in this chat,” he said.
“If the timing of a combat mission – an imminently launched combat mission – is not sensitive government information, I simply don’t know what is.”
Yesterday, when facing a grilling from Congress over the Signal fiasco, Donald Trump’s controversial director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said she was not aware of any discussion relating to weapons packages, targets or timings shared on the group chat.
She’s facing Congress again today and, as you can imagine, she’s not been getting an easy ride of it.
Democrat Jim Himes asked her a short time ago how she’d managed to forget, in just two weeks, that Pete Hegseth had shared details about upcoming strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen – which included timings, weapons packages and targets.
“My answer yesterday was based on my recollection or the lack thereof on the details posted there,” Gabbard responded.
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