By Patricia Zengerle
WASHINGTON () – The leading figures from both the Republican and Democratic parties on the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee requested on Thursday that the Pentagon look into the Trump administration’s utilization of the Signal messaging app for deliberating over confidential attack strategies.
In a correspondence addressed to Steven Stebbins, who was serving as the Acting Inspector General at the Defense Department, Senator Roger Wicker—the chairperson of the committee—and Senator Jack Reed, the senior Democratic member, requested an investigation along with an evaluation of the circumstances related to the Signal chats and the department’s guidelines concerning “compliance with these rules” regarding the dissemination of classified data.
The Senate Armed Services Committee is responsible for overseeing the Department of Defense and approving its approximately $1 trillion budget. A representative from Stebbins’ office stated they were examining the correspondence but chose not to provide additional remarks.
On March 15, during a conversation, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sent texts outlining plans to eliminate a Houthi militant leader in Yemen just two hours prior to a covert military operation, as revealed by screenshots published by The Atlantic on Wednesday.
Wicker had said on Wednesday that he and Reed planned a letter, after critics said U.S. troops could have died if the information in the chat had fallen into the wrong hands.
Wicker and Reed requested an evaluation of the Defense Department’s procedures for classifying and declassifying information, along with a comparison of these practices between the White House, the Pentagon, intelligence agencies, and other relevant bodies to identify any differences. Additionally, they sought insight into “Whether any personnel shared classified data, such as operational specifics, from secure systems to non-secure ones, and if this occurred, what methods were used.”
Once the review was completed, the letter dated Wednesday stated that the Armed Services Committee would collaborate with Stebbins to arrange a briefing session.
Even though none of Donald Trump’s Republican counterparts in Congress have urged for any officials to step down, several have sided with Democrats to voice their concerns over the conversation on Signal, a secure private messaging application.
SECRETARY CABINETS, VICE PRESIDENTS, AND LEADERS OF INTELLIGENCE SERVICES ENGAGE IN TEXT MESSAGES
The conversation featured National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, Vice President JD Vance, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Administration officials were unaware that Jeffrey Goldberg, who leads the Atlantic as its editor-in-chief, had been mistakenly added to the conversation—a situation that has sparked national security worries in Washington.
Various Democrats have demanded that Hegseth and others involved in the chat should step down from their positions.
Government representatives have debated, and occasionally tried to minimize, the event, choosing rather to concentrate on determining if any details were confidential and which department could have labeled them as such.
They have similarly maintained that it did not encompass “war plans,” despite the communications specifying both the scheduled timing of the assault and the assets—such as planes—that would take part.
Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski expressed her shock over the significant security lapse involving high-ranking administration officials on X.com.
“Their neglect of strict safety measures and protected communication routes might have jeopardized a critical mission and endangered our service members. I trust this will serve as an awakening that operational security needs to be a paramount concern for all individuals—particularly our leadership,” she stated.
The Pentagon’s watchdog, an impartial officer tasked with uncovering wasteful spending, corruption, and misconduct, was among the various officials dismissed by President Trump after he started his second term in January. A permanent successor for this position has yet to be appointed by him.
(Reported by Patricia Zengerle; Extra reporting by Idrees Ali; Edited by Alistair Bell and Howard Goller)
