What key Trump players in Signal chat flap are saying

The White House continues to downplay and divert criticism of a chat from a group of signals between top officials of the Trump administration, in which plans for air strike in Yemen were discussed just before they were executed.

Democratic MPs require an investigation and blame Trump key officers and national security staff in the disclosure of classified information on Yemen’s plans in a group chat on March 15 through a encrypted but unsecured application. The chat also included the editor -in -chief of Atlantic magazine, which was inadvertently invited to the channel.

Fallout continued to grow on Wednesday, as The Atlantic, who broke the story on Monday, published suspected details discussed in Yemen Strike chat. In the new article, the magazine shared text messages sent to the group, including its editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, from the Minister of Defense Pete Heget, giving a “update of the team” for the hanging times of the strike, “favorable” weather conditions in Yemen and that the military jets of the F-18 and the attacks of the F-18 and the attacks of

“This is when the first bombs will definitely be dropped,” heget sends at one point, marking the wartime of 1415 (14:15) for the planned strike.

The magazine described heget’s text message as “plans for war.”

The magazine announced that the heget’s text message was sent to the group, involuntarily included the number of the Goldberg mobile phone, “31 minutes before the launch of the first US military aircraft” against Huti’s belligerent goals.

“The idea that this information, if it is presented to our committee, will not be classified. Do you know this is a lie. This is ridiculous,” said reporter Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, during the Wednesday’s Intelligence Committee while they were reporting Trump’s chat. “I have seen things less sensitive, they present us with a high classification.”

Here’s what the Trump administration staff said about the content of the group chat:

Has she released classified information in the group chat?

The White House and the best administration employees, who were in the group chat entitled “Huthi PC Small Group,” continued to say on Wednesday that no classified information was shared in the group chat.

“The conversation was frank and sensitive, but as the president and national security adviser stated, no classified information was shared. There were no sources, methods, places or plans for war that were shared,” said the Trump director for national intelligence, Tulsey Gabard, in the hearing of the Chamber Intelligence Committee. “It was a standard update to the National Security Cabinet, which was provided with updates provided to foreign partners in the region.”

As he testified in the hearing of the Senate of the Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, Gabard initially refused to answer questions about the group chat, even refused to confirm whether it was part of it, saying: “I will not go into specific data because this is currently being reviewed by the National Security Council.”

But later, at the hearing, Gabard told members of the Senate Commission: “There is no classified material to be shared in the signal chat.”

Sitting next to Gabard on Tuesday, CIA Director John Radcliffe immediately confirmed that he was part of the group chat when asked.

“So, my communications, in order to be clear, in the group of signal messages were completely eligible and legal and did not include classified information to be clear,” Radcliffe said.

Senator Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., Asked both Gabard and Radcliffe to answer a series of questions about the content of the group chat, including whether the military units, weapons and time were mentioned.

Both Gabard and Radcliffe replied that they couldn’t remember if these topics appear. When he was pressed by Kelly, Gabard later said, “I believe there was a discussion about goals as a whole,” and Radcliffe added, “I think this is in line with my memory.”

In a social media publication on X Wednesday, heget struck the Atlantic reporting, saying: “The Atlantic Atlantic released the so -called” military plans “and these” plans “include: No names. There are no goals. There are no places. There are no units. There are no routes. There are no sources. No methods and no classified information. “

In an interview on Tuesday night at the Vince Show – a conservative conversational radio program hosted by Vince Koliyese – Trump emphasized the success of Yemen’s attack and said, “No, and there was no details and there was nothing that was compromised there and that had no influence on the attack, which was very successful.”

White House press secretary Carolyn Levitt published on X Wednesday, noting that the title of the Atlantic Atlantic in his latest article refers to “Plans for Attack” instead of “War Plans,” which was initially reported by the magazine.

“The Atlantic Acknowledged: These were not” plans for war, “Levit writes in his post. “All this story was another fraud written by Trump-Heater, which is well known for its sensationalistic rotation.”

Goldberg and the Atlantic have reported that they are “retaining specific weapons and attack information we found in certain texts.” But the Atlantic Ocean said he had decided to release Heget’s text messages stating that the types of weapons and the strike time were used to counteract the Trump staff’s claims that no classified information was published in what was described in the article as “a massive breach of Trump security.

“The statements of Heget, Gabard, Ratcliffe and Trump-in combination with allegations made by numerous administration officials, that we are lying to the content of the signal texts, made us believe that people should see the texts to get to our own conclusions,” the subsequent article said.

Was it wrong to make such a chat in the signal app?

In his testimony on Tuesday to the Senate Intelligence Committee, Ratcliffe said the signal was appropriately used by the group involved in the chat, including Vice President JD Vance.

“So we are clear, one of the first things that happened when I was confirmed, as the CIA director was loaded on my computer at the CIA, as is the case with most CIA employees,” Ratcliffe said until he answered questions from Senator Mark Warner, D-VA. “One of the things I was familiar with the very early senator was the people of the CIA records about the use of the signal as an acceptable use of the job. This is. This is a practice preceding the current administration to the Biden administration.”

RatCliffe added: “This is an end -to -end encryption. It is permissible to use for communication and coordination for work purposes, provided… provided all the decisions are made are also recorded through official channels. So these are procedures that are applied. My staff follow these processes, they follow the processes.

On Wednesday, Ratcliffe told the home intelligence committee that there was no abuse of signal application.

“I used a suitable channel to communicate sensitive information. It was permissible to do it. I did not transfer classified information,” Ratcliffe said. “And at the end of the day, the most important thing is that the mission was a remarkable success.”

But several former defense and intelligence officials have told ABC News that such exchanges should never have been made in such a group chat. They insisted that the exact location of the strike was not necessary to make the information harm to national security.

The details that heget shared in chat were so sensitive that if they expired, they could put troops carrying the strike at risk because it gives the enemy to prepare to fight, the experts told Abc News.

“It was 100 percent classified,” said Darrell Blocker, a former CIA operating operating and ABC News associate, for the reported text exchange based on his three decades with security authorization.

Gabard told the Chamber Committee: “The signaling application comes pre -installed on government devices. December 2024, CISA [Certified Information Systems Auditor] He stated: “We are highly urging highly targeted persons to immediately review and apply the best practices provided in the guidelines for the protection of mobile communications, including the consistent use of encrypted messages for end-to-end encrypted applications.”

On Tuesday, Trump told reporters in the oval office that he knew nothing about the signal and was not involved in the group chat.

“I hear it is used by many groups. I hear a lot of media is used,” Trump said. “Many of the military, in my opinion, successfully. Sometimes people can get on these things, this is one of the prices you pay when you do not sit in a situational room without phones, which is always the best, honest. The best thing is to be there.”

How was Goldberg invited to the call?

On Tuesday, Trump offered an employee of national security adviser Mike Waltz to inadvertently invite Goldberg to the group chat.

“And what it was, we believe, is someone who was on the line with a permission, someone who was with Mike Waltz, working for Mike Wals at a nicer level, I guess the Goldberg number was called through the app and somehow this man ended up on the conversation,” Trump said in an interview with NEWSMAX.

But during an interview with Laura Ingraham on Tuesday night, Waltz contradicts Trump’s statement, saying he was the one who accidentally invited Goldberg to Chat.

“Well, look, an employee is not responsible. And look, I take full responsibility. I built the group,” Valtz said, adding that the incident was “disturbing”.

On Wednesday, Gabard told the Chamber’s Intelligence Committee that it was a “mistake” to add Goldberg to Chat.

During a press conference in Kingston, Jamaica, on Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed that he was in the alert chat and added: “Someone made a big mistake and added a journalist.”

Will there be an investigation?

Elon Musk and his team at the Ministry of Government Efficiency (Dogi) are reviewing how Goldberg has been added to a chat signal, a senior White House official told ABC News.

In his interview with Fox News on Tuesday night, Walz mentioned Musk’s participation, saying, “I just talked to an elon on the way here -we have the best technical minds, looking at how this happened.”

The White House employee confirmed to ABC News that Dog also participated that the team was working with other teams to make communications “more secure and effective”.

Levitt told Fox News that, in addition to Musk and his team, the National Security Council “everyone falls into this matter … to ensure that this can never be repeated.”

Asked by Senator Warner during Tuesday’s Senate Intelligence Committee, who listens to the FBI investigating the issue, the FBI Director Kash Patel, who was not part of the chat, said: “Senator, I was just informed last night last night. I have no update.”