WASHINGTON — On Monday, The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief was mistakenly included in a group chat regarding the upcoming military strikes in Yemen. These texts were sent by national security officials under President Donald Trump. One of the members within the group chat was his defense secretary, Pete Hegseth.
Following the incident, President Donald Trump said Monday he knows “nothing” about the group chat regarding the military strikes.
Signal, an encrypted service for text messages, was used between the officials. Editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg reported the messages, “contained operational details of forthcoming strikes on Iran-backed Houthi-rebels in Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing.”
Just two hours after Goldberg received the details of the attack on March 15, the U.S. began launching a series of airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen.
The National Security Council said in a statement that it was looking into how a journalist’s number was added to the chain in the Signal group chat. Goldberg said he received the Signal invitation from Mike Waltz, Trump’s national security adviser, who was also in the group chat.
Hegseth in his first comments on the matter attacked Goldberg as “deceitful” and a “discredited so-called journalist” while alluding to previous critical reporting of Trump from the publication.
Hegseth states that no war plans were exchanged over messages. The Defense Secretary had no other comments regarding the messages.
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