US Defense Secretary denies leaking war plans in Signal chat

WASHINGTON, United States

United States Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth said on March 25 that "nobody was texting war plans" in a Signal chat among top Trump administration officials.

"You're talking about a deceitful and highly discredited so-called journalist (Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of the Atlantic) who's made a profession of peddling hoaxes," the defense secretary told Fox News.

The statement comes as Goldberg claimed on March 24 that he was mistakenly added to a private Signal chat where Trump administration officials discussed plans for strikes on Yemen.

Despite Hegseth's denial, the leak was indirectly confirmed by National Security Council spokesperson Brian Hughes, who said the chat "appears to be authentic." The administration is investigating how an "inadvertent number" was added to the group, he added.

According to Goldberg, on March 11 — four days before the U.S. military strike on Yemen — he received a Signal message from a user named "Michael Waltz," the namesake of U.S. President Donald Trump's national security adviser.

After accepting the request, he found himself in a chat named "Houthi PC small group" (PC referring to the Principals Committee, a U.S. national security decision-making body).

Jeffrey Goldberg

Waltz, a former Green Beret and Florida congressman, has been a vocal advocate for reducing U.S. military aid to Ukraine, arguing that European nations should bear more responsibility.

His appointment as Trump's national security adviser has raised concerns about a shift in Washington's approach to Ukraine and NATO.

The chat reportedly included 18 accounts with names corresponding to top U.S. officials, including Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and Trump adviser Steve Witkoff.

Gabbard is a former Democrat and Army National Guard veteran who has echoed Russian narratives on Ukraine. Hegseth is a Fox News personality and former Army officer who now serves as defense secretary despite lacking high-level military leadership experience.

Messages within the chat detailed the planning and discussion of the March 15 strike on Yemen, leading Goldberg to conclude that the group was real.

Trump later denied knowledge of the incident. "I don't know anything about it. I'm not a big fan of the Atlantic. To me, it's a magazine that's going out of business. It's not much of a magazine. But I know nothing about it," he said at a briefing.

The incident has sparked comparisons to past security controversies, particularly Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while serving as secretary of state from 2009 to 2013.

The FBI investigated Clinton for handling classified information via private email, concluding in 2016 that she had been "extremely careless" but did not commit a prosecutable offense.

Some Democrats have highlighted what they see as hypocrisy, given Trump's past calls for severe punishment of Clinton over her email practices.

"You know what Hillary Clinton didn't do? Post war plans on her email," said Congressman Jim Himes of Connecticut, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, Politico reported.

Clinton reacted on X with a brief post, saying, "You've got to be kidding me."

Legal experts interviewed by the Atlantic suggested Waltz's actions could constitute a violation of laws governing the handling of national defense information.

The Signal chat leak comes amid Trump's broader push to reshape U.S. foreign policy, as his administration grapples with wars in Ukraine and the Middle East while attempting to redefine America's global security commitments.