Director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard admitted on Wednesday that a reporter was inadvertently included in a high-level Signal chat regarding planned strikes on the Houthis in Yemen. However, she maintained that no classified information was shared in the conversation.
Speaking during a House Intelligence Committee hearing, Gabbard said, “The president and national security adviser (Mike) Waltz held a press conference yesterday with a clear message: it was a mistake that a reporter was inadvertently added to a Signal chat with high-level national security principals having a policy discussion about imminent strikes against the Houthis and the effects of the strike.”
She emphasised that Waltz had taken “full responsibility” for the error and that the national security council was conducting a thorough review, with technical experts investigating how the journalist was mistakenly added.
“The conversation was candid and sensitive, but as the president and national security adviser stated, no classified information was shared. There were no sources, methods, locations, or war plans disclosed,” Gabbard reiterated.
However, conflicting accounts have emerged. A US defense official familiar with the operation, along with another source briefed on the matter, claimed that information shared in the chat by secretary of defense Pete Hegseth was highly classified at the time, given that the strike had not yet taken place.
During a Senate intelligence committee hearing on Tuesday, Gabbard said she did not recall whether the chat contained specific operational details such as weapons, timing, and targets of the strikes. She deferred questions regarding the classification of the information to the secretary of defense.
Concerns over national security risks were raised during the House intelligence committee hearing, with Democratic Connecticut representative Jim Himes warning of the potential consequences of such a leak.
“Everyone here knows that the Russians or the Chinese could have gotten all of that information and passed it on to the Houthis, who could have repositioned weapons and altered their plans to knock down planes or sink ships,” Himes said. “I think that it’s by the awesome grace of god that we are not mourning dead pilots right now.”
Gabbard and CIA director John Ratcliffe testified before the committee on foreign threats just as The Atlantic released additional messages exchanged among senior Trump administration officials, including the reporter who was accidentally included. The Trump administration has denied that the messages contained classified information.
Himes criticised the administration’s handling of the situation, arguing that the appropriate response should have been to “apologize, own it, and stop everything until you can figure out what went wrong.”
“That’s not what happened,” Himes said. “The secretary of defense responded with a brutal attack on the reporter who did not ask to be on the Signal chain. Yesterday, our former colleague Mike Waltz did the same in the White House and then went on Fox to call Jeff Goldberg a loser.”
As the investigation continues, the administration faces mounting scrutiny over the leak and its potential national security implications.