Watchdog Sues Trump Officials Over Signal War Plans Chat

Topline

Government watchdog group American Oversight filed a federal lawsuit against senior Trump administration officials on Tuesday for their use of the messaging app Signal to discuss military plans to target Houthi militants in Yemen, a day after White House officials confirmed The Atlantic’s report that the magazine’s editor-in-chief was accidentally added to the war plans group chat.

Key Facts

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Crucial Quote

In a statement accompanying the suit, American Oversight Interim Executive Director Chioma Chukwu said: “War planning doesn’t belong in emoji-laden disappearing group chats. It belongs in secure facilities designed to safeguard national interests — something any responsible government official should have known. Our lawsuit seeks to ensure these federal records are preserved and recovered. The American people deserve answers and we won’t stop until we get them.”

Key Background

On Monday, Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg reported that he had been accidentally added to a group chat on Signal called “Houthi PC small group” on March 13. The group included nearly all of the top foreign policy, intelligence and defense officials in the Trump administration—including Hegseth, Rubio, Waltz and Vice President JD Vance. The messages members of the group text discussed, among other things, were a planned U.S. military strike on Houthi militants in Yemen. One of the posts shared by Hegseth included operational details about the strike, including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing.” The National Security Council later told reporters that the conversation “appears to be an authentic message chain” and officials were reviewing how a number was inadvertently added.

Tangent

National Security Adviser Mike Waltz told Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Tuesday that he takes “full responsibility” for the chat app incident. When asked if a staffer was responsible for adding Goldberg, Waltz said, “I built the group…My job is to make sure everything's coordinated.” Without providing any evidence, Waltz then appeared to suggest that Goldberg had somehow infiltrated the chat. Waltz indicated that Goldberg’s number was saved on his device under somebody else’s contact and said: “Now, whether he did it deliberately or it happened in some other technical means is something we're trying to figure out.” The national security adviser said he had spoken with Elon Musk and “we've got the best technical minds looking at how this happened.”

Further Reading

Waltz Says He Doesn’t Know Atlantic Editor He Invited To War Chat—As Trump Defends Aide (Forbes)

Trump Says He Knows ‘Nothing’ After Atlantic Editor’s Bombshell Claim He Was In Signal Chat For War Plans (Forbes)