Signal Group Chat Leak

Journalist Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, was accidentally added to a private Signal group chat involving senior officials in the Trump administration discussing potential military action against the Houthi movement in Yemen on March 11. Goldberg published an article discussing the experience on March 24.

The group chat, titled “Houthi PC small group,” appeared to be a forum for members of the Trump Administration Principals Committee, which is a group typically made up of top national-security officials including the Secretary of Defense (Pete Hegseth), the Secretary of State (Marco Rubio), the CIA Director (John L. Ratcliffe), and other senior figures. Goldberg’s Signal profile appeared in the group as “JG,” and him being in the chat went unnoticed by the other members for multiple days until he left.

“I had very strong doubts that this text group was real,” Goldberg wrote, “I could not believe that the national-security leadership of the United States would communicate on Signal about imminent war plans.”

Over the next few days, Goldberg read the group talk about detailed deliberations about a strike against Houthi targets. The group chat included messages from Signal accounts labeled with names of people including, “Michael Waltz,” “JD Vance,” “Tulsi Gabbard,” and “Pete Hegseth.” 

Each name corresponded to an official in Trump’s administration, including the Vice President (Vance), the Secretary of State (Marco Rubio), and National Security Council staff.

The conversation was initially about a wide range of concerns: trade routes through the Suez Canal, messaging around the operation, claims that Europe is “free-loading,” and the risk of public backlash. Some members, like Vance, initially showed hesitation.

By March 15, Goldberg received messages that included specific details about the operation—targets, timing, weapons systems. Goldberg didn’t directly quote from these portions of the text messages, making it clear that the texts contained sensitive information that could have endangered U.S. personnel if intercepted. 

A follow-up message indicated that strikes would happen at 1:45 p.m. Eastern Time. Sitting in his car in a supermarket parking lot, Goldberg refreshed social media to see that explosions were reported in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, within minutes of the time predicted in the group chat. It was only then that he realized the group chat was real and removed himself.

“Even as a teacher, we have to abide by strict privacy rules and our communications about students are subject to laws that protect privacy and security. So, it’s really shocking that government officials can be so lax with security,” NHS English teacher Jacqui Kaplan said.

According to legal experts consulted for the story, by coordinating military action over an unsecured platform, officials may have violated the Espionage Act and Federal records laws. 

In response to the leaked texts, Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of Defense, defended the Trump Administration by saying that the information in Goldberg’s article is incorrect.

“Nobody was texting war plans, and that’s all I have to say about that,” Hegseth said on March 24.

The use of a Signal group chat for this purpose not only bypassed secure government communication systems but also left highly sensitive national-defense information vulnerable to interception, like if anyone's phone had been lost, stolen, or compromised. Some messages were even set to disappear after a week, potentially violating requirements to preserve government records.