The editor-in-chief of the American publication The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, says that he was added to a closed Signal messenger chat where officials from the Donald Trump administration discussed strikes in Yemen on 15 March.
According to Goldberg, he received a request on Signal from a user named Michael Waltz who serves as POTUS Donald Trump’s national security advisor.
A message to the group read as follows: “Team – establishing a principles [sic] group for coordination on Houthis, particularly for over the next 72 hours. My deputy Alex Wong is pulling together a tiger team at deputies/agency Chief of Staff level following up from the meeting in the Sit Room this morning for action items and will be sending that out later this evening.”
The message continued, “Pls provide the best staff POC from your team for us to coordinate with over the next couple days and over the weekend. Thx.”
Dubbed “Houthi PC small group,” it included 18 people, including accounts writing on behalf of Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Trump advisor Steve Witkoff, and others.
The messages in the group featured information on the upcoming strike on Yemen that subsequently took place on March 15.
The spokesperson for the US National Security Council, Brian Hughes, indirectly confirmed the incident, saying that the administration is investigating how a “random number” was added to the group.
Lawyers interviewed by The Atlantic believe that Waltz’s actions may constitute a violation of US legislation regulating the handling of national defense information.
Moreover, Trump’s advisor set a self-destructive mode for certain messages, which contradicts federal law requiring the retention of all text messages from administration officials.
