Pressure grew on US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth to resign on Wednesday after it emerged he had shared a detailed timeline on Signal about how Central Command would attack the Houthis, despite claiming he had not shared any war plans.
The revelation came in a follow-up story by Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine, who was inadvertently included in a group chat on the unsecured commercial app Signal along with Mr Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance and other members of President Donald Trump's cabinet ahead of strikes against the Houthis this month.
“Nobody's texting war plans. I know exactly what I am doing,” Mr Hegseth told reporters on Monday when the story broke.
But Goldberg's follow-up story on Wednesday showed the Pentagon chief had texted a detailed timeline of imminent strikes against the Houthis. The journalist had initially declined to publish the sensitive information over fears it would hurt US national security. But following personal attacks from Trump officials and claims by the President and other Cabinet members that the information was not classified, Goldberg went ahead and published more details from the chat.
“Weather is favourable … just confirmed with Centcom that we are a GO for launch,” a message from Mr Hegseth states.
“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)” reads another message to the group chat with at least 19 other members.
Signal chat leaks: Messages appear to show Hegseth reveal Houthi plans
Another message from Mr Hegseth reads, “We are currently clean on OPSEC,” a reference to operational security, implying that he thought all confidential information had been securely contained.
Democratic Representative Gregory Meeks, Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, called for Mr Hegseth's immediate resignation.
“It is now undeniable that Secretary Hegseth not only shared classified US war plans over Signal, but also lied about it to the American public. This gross incompetence puts American servicemembers in jeopardy and risked having our adversaries intercept a potential road map of US strategic planning,” Mr Meeks said in a statement.
“Pete Hegseth must resign immediately. If his lack of qualifications for this role wasn’t already evident, this latest scandal confirms he is dangerously unfit for the job.”
Adding to the chorus of those calling for Mr Hegseth's removal were House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Democratic Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi.
"He was openly sharing classified materials on an insecure channel that potentially endangered service members and then he lied about it," Mr Krishnamoorthi posted on X. "He should resign."
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said Atlantic staff were “hoax-peddlers” who had abandoned claims that Mr Hegseth texted “war plans”.
“These additional Signal chat messages confirm there were no classified materials or war plans shared. The Secretary was merely updating the group on a plan that was under way and had already been briefed through official channels. The American people see through the Atlantic’s pathetic attempts to distract from President Trump’s national security agenda,” Mr Parnell said in a statement.
At a hearing on Tuesday, Democratic Senator Mark Warner said the Signal chat was another “example off the sloppy, careless, incompetent behaviour towards confidential information” by the Trump administration.
Trump officials including National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, who appears to have inadvertently added Goldberg to the group chat, on Wednesday claimed that no war plans were shared and said foreign partners already knew strikes were imminent. Mr Waltz also said that “no locations” were shared, even though he had written in the chat that the Houthis' “top missile guy” had been spotted “walking into his girlfriend’s building”.
"What I can say definitively is what I just spoke to the President about, and he continues to have confidence in his national security team," White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Wednesday.
She said Signal is an approved and encrypted app that is widely used by the Department of Defence, the Department of State and the CIA.
"It is the most secure and efficient way to communicate," Ms Leavitt said.
Mr Waltz on Tuesday said he took responsibility for the incident and that he was enlisting President Trump's adviser, Tesla and SpaceX tycoon Elon Musk, to figure out how Goldberg was added to the Signal group chat. “We made a mistake. We’re moving forward,” he said.
The Atlantic story has dominated the news cycle in Washington all week, with many of the same Republicans who attacked Hillary Clinton over her use of a private email server in 2016 now at the centre of an embarrassing security scandal.
Director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA director John Ratcliffe and FBI director Kash Patel were all peppered with questions about what had occurred at hearings in Congress this week.
“This was a standard update provided alongside updates that were given to foreign partners in the region. The Signal message app comes preinstalled on government devices,” Ms Gabbard said at an intelligence hearing on Wednesday.
The large-scale military strikes against the Iran-backed Houthis – which began on March 15 – were in response to the group's continued attacks on Red Sea shipping. At least 53 people, including five children, were killed and 98 others injured in the first round of strikes, according to a Houthi Health Ministry spokesman.
Mr Ratcliffe acknowledged that he took part in the group chat, but vigorously defended his participation.
“Signal was loaded on to my computer at the CIA,” he said, recalling when he first assumed the position of CIA director. “The records management folks at the CIA said it was permissible, and this was a decision made from the Biden administration.”
Some Trump administration officials have pointed out that Signal uses end-to-end encryption, yet that is far from perfect and has been vulnerable to being compromised. All the encryption in the world cannot help if others are included on an encrypted group chat.
Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer described the use of Signal to discuss military plans as “amateur behaviour”.
“This text chain was not a secure conversation and the app used is not approved for discussing classified military operations,” he said on the floor of the Senate. “When Pete Hegseth came before the Senate as a nominee, Democrats warned that something like this might happen.”
Jihan Abdalla contributed to this report from Washington.
