The Atlantic has released a follow up article publishing all the texts from a Signal group chat involving senior Trump administration staff discussing national security plans.
The original article, released on Tuesday, was a bombshell expose from The Atlantic's editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, where he revealed he was accidentally added to the group chat, named ‘Houthis PC small group’, on the messaging platform Signal.
He was added to the text chain back in mid-March and wrote that none of the other participants noticed a journalist was in their midst as classified security and war plans were discussed, specifically plans for an airstrike in Yemen, the details of which Goldberg was then privy to before it took place.
This original article, which ran with the straightforward headline, ‘The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans’, did not disclose to full content of the messages, citing concern for the identity of an unnamed CIA agent, information about weapons and the timings of specific attacks.
Following the publication of this piece, President Donald Trump, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, John Ratcliffe, National Security Adviser Michael Waltz (who added Goldberg to the text chain), secretary of defence, Pete Hegseth and the director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard all denied that any classified or sensitive information was disclosed in the messages.
Goldberg and his co-worker Shane Harris, who covers national security and intelligence for The Atlantic, overnight released a new piece that published the messages in full to dispute these denials, with the only redaction being the name of the CIA agent.
Both Harris and Goldberg confirmed they repeatedly reached out for comment ahead of publication and forewarned that "The Atlantic is considering publishing the entirety of the Signal chain" in emails to the CIA, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the National Security Council, the Department of Defence, and the White House.
The only response received was from White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, stating that while they did not "encourage the release of the conversation" that she confirmed “there was no classified information transmitted in the group chat".
The messages in full now contradict these statements, revealing details of an attack on Houthis, a Yemeni political and military group, before the planes were even launched to carry it out and negative remarks from multiple senior staff members, including the vice president, about the European allies.
An EU official was quoted to the BBC as saying the messages made leaders on the Continent “sick to their stomach” but no official statement in response has been made, while both Democrats and Republicans have called for the resignation of Hegseth.
