Press Releases

Today, Rep. Gerald E. Connolly, Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sent a letter to Department of Defense Acting Inspector General Steven Stebbins;  Department of State Acting Inspector General Sandra J. Lewis;  Department of the Treasury Deputy Inspector General Loren Sciurba;  Central Intelligence Agency Acting Inspector General Robert Host;  and Counsel to the President David Warrington requesting a full and immediate investigation following two reports published in The Atlantic this week that revealed several members of the National Security Council and the White House Cabinet discussed classified plans for a military operation in Yemen in a group chat on the Signal messaging application that included The Atlantic reporter Jeffrey Goldberg. 

According to Mr. Goldberg’s reporting and screenshots of the conversation, senior Trump Administration officials discussed the merits of a strike on the Houthi rebel group in Yemen, including deliberating on relevant concerns about U.S. national interests and impacts on American allies.  

In the chat, Defense Secretary Hegseth disclosed the strike plans of deployed U.S. military forces that, had it been “read by an adversary of the United States, could conceivably have been used to harm American military and intelligence personnel.”

 “The use of Signal to communicate this information jeopardized the lives of men and women of the military and embarrassingly advertised to our adversaries the careless attitude of our nation’s senior leaders.  Moreover, this extraordinary breach of trust raises concerns as to whether Mr. Waltz, Mr. Hegseth, and the other members of the Signal group acted in accordance with laws meant to protect sensitive government information and ensure retention of government records.  The Espionage Act, for example, strictly limits the dissemination of sensitive and classified information to our adversaries either through intent or negligence. This incident raises questions as to whether Mr. Waltz and the other senior officials failed to comply with federal recordkeeping requirements, given the fact that ‘Waltz set some of the messages in the Signal group to disappear after one week, and some after four.’  Shockingly, during a March 25, 2025, hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee, DNI Gabbard stated that she no longer had access to the messages on the chain and refused to disclose whether she participated in such chats on her personal phone,” wrote Ranking Member Connolly.

Click here to read the letter.