March 25 (UPI) — Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee grilled top intelligence officials in the Trump administration during a hearing Tuesday about worldwide threats and a recently leaked security chat they called “sloppy, careless and incompetent.”
CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard testified at the open hearing about how Yemen military plans were leaked earlier this month to journalist Jeffrey Goldberg at The Atlantic. National Security Agency Director Timothy Haugh and Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Kash Patel were also in attendance as both Gabbard and Ratcliffe claimed no classified materials had been divulged.
“The National Security Council is reviewing all aspects of how this came to be, how the journalist was inadvertently added to the group chat and what occurred within that chat across the board,” Gabbard told the panel.
“I can attest to the fact that there were not classified or intelligence equities that were included in that chat group at any time,” she continued, as Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., suggested a public release of the information.
“The idea somehow, ‘Well, none of this was classified but we can’t talk about it here,’ you can’t have it both ways,” Warner countered.
“If it’s not classified again, we’d ask you to give it to the public today,” Warner added. “If you got it here it’s not classified. Stand by your position, or is this just one more example of a careless approach on how we keep our secrets in this administration?”
Goldberg reported in The Atlantic earlier this month that he had been included in a group chat on the texting platform Signal, an encrypted messaging app, in which top Trump officials detailed pending attacks against Houthi rebels in Yemen two hours before they were implemented on March 15.
“I could not believe that the national-security leadership of the United States would communicate on Signal about imminent war plans,” Goldberg said. “I could not believe that the national security adviser to the president would be so reckless as to include him in the discussions with senior U.S. officials.”
Ratcliffe testified Tuesday that the CIA permits the use of Signal for work communications, calling the app “permissible and lawful.”
“One of the first things that happened as CIA director was Signal was loaded onto my computer at the CIA, as it is for most CIA officers,” Ratcliffe said.
Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., asked Ratcliffe whether he knew President Trump’s Middle East adviser was in Moscow on the Signal thread while he was director of the CIA, to which Ratcliffe replied, “I’m not aware of that.”
“This sloppiness, this incompetence, this disrespect for our intelligence agencies and the personnel who work for him is entirely unacceptable. It’s an embarrassment,” Bennet shouted. “You need to do better. You need to do better.”
“I think this is one more example of sloppy, careless, incompetent behavior, particularly towards classified information,” Senate Intelligence Committee ranking member Mark Warner, D-Va., added. “This Signal fiasco is not a one-off.”
Both Gabbard and Ratcliffe said they would comply with any audit of their communications as both testified they did not participate in classified discussions on Signal.
“To be clear, I haven’t participated in any Signal group messaging that relates to any classified information at all,” Ratcliffe said.
“Senator, I have the same answer,” Gabbard added. “I have not participated in any Signal group chat, or any other chat on another app that contained any classified information.”
During Tuesday’s hearing, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., called for resignations over the text chain.
“I’m of the view that there ought to be resignations, starting with the national security adviser and the secretary of defense,” Wyden said.
President Trump has said the inclusion of journalist Goldberg in the Signal chat with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Vice President JD Vance, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, as well as Gabbard and Ratcliffe, had “no impact at all” on the strike in Yemen.
Trump also defended Waltz, saying the national security adviser will not be fired as the president revealed it was a staffer for Waltz who included Goldberg in the Signal group chat.
“He’s not getting fired,” Trump told Fox News, as he called the incident “a mistake” and claimed the Signal text thread contained “nothing important.”
“They were using an app, as I understand it, that a lot of people in government use, a lot of people in the media use,” Trump told reporters Tuesday. “If it were up to me, everybody would be sitting in a room together.”
The president said technical experts and legal teams are looking into the app’s security, before adding that White House aides would “probably” not use Signal any longer.
