National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard, FBI Director Kash Patel and CIA Director John Ratcliffe began testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee at a public hearing on global threats facing the United States. The obvious question at the hearing was the reports of chats leaking US’ war plans in Yemen and Tulsi Gabbard denied to reply to that.
According to the Atlantic report by Jeffrey Goldberg, who claimed that he was by mistake added to a secret group of US officials where they discussed dropping bombs on Houthis, Tulsi Gabbard was also a member of the group.
“Senator, I don’t want to get into this,” Gabbard responded when questioned by Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chair Sen. Mark Warner about whether she was involved in the conversation. She said she didn’t want to discuss the matter while it was under review by the National Security Council.
Warner said that “American lives could have been lost” because of the disclosure.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe admitted he was involved in the chat. But he said the conversation was “entirely permissible and lawful and did not include classified information.”
FBI Director Kash Patel declined to say on Tuesday whether the bureau will launch an investigation if national security information was improperly leaked by Cabinet members in a Signal chat that included a journalist. “Director Patel, has the FBI launched any investigation of this?” Warner asked. Patel responded, “I was just briefed about it late last night, this morning. I don’t have an update.” Warner asked for an update “by the end of the day.”
Only glitch in two months and not serious: What Trump said
As Jeffrey Goldberg, the Atlantic journalist, who reported in detail and with screenshots how the planning of the Houthi bombing unfolded — with what everyone was thinking etc — there was little room for the administration to deny the Signal group as the breach. Defense secretary Pete Hegseth said no war plan was being discussed in the group while the White House also maintained the same stance that there was no classified material.
Donald Trump was asked for a reaction Monday when he said he did not know anything about it but expressed his dislike for The Atlantic. A day later, Trump acknowledged it to be a glitch but a minor and unserious one. “Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man,” the president told NBC News in a brief interview Tuesday.
Trump, 78, added that the addition of Jeffrey Goldberg to a Signal group that included Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio had “no impact at all” on the outcome of the March 15 airstrikes, which the president described as “perfectly successful.”
