CNN
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It’s one of the most shocking national security indiscretions in years.
The revelation that President Donald Trump’s national security team discussed military strikes in Yemen on an unclassified group chat suggests a cavalier attitude toward America’s secrets and the safety of US forces on a deadly mission.
The group message, revealed Monday in an article by Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg – who was somehow added to the chat by accident – hints at a lax national security process and incompetence as the nation faces a world of threats.
The use of Signal, an encrypted app that is nonetheless carried on phones that are vulnerable to penetration by foreign intelligence services, also suggests contempt for strict laws on the handling of classified material that would land more junior officials in deep trouble.
“This was grossly negligent,” Ryan Goodman, a former Defense Department special counsel, told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Monday. “That is actually the terms of the criminal statute – ‘having gross negligence in mishandling classified information’ … if it is disclosed to somebody who is unauthorized. And on their call was a journalist. That means there was in fact a disclosure.”
The lack of public contrition, let alone resignations, from top officials, reflects a White House that operates in a culture of impunity and has stacked the Justice Department and FBI – which might normally be expected to launch immediate investigations – with ultra-loyalists to the president.
Amid calls from Democrats for probes and oversight, House Speaker Mike Johnson shrugged off the seriousness of the matter, underscoring how the GOP in Congress has abrogated its power in deference to its strongman president.
And Trump insisted that he didn’t know anything about the chat – instead attacking the Atlantic, against which he holds a grudge for its reporting during his first term.
The president also amplified a mocking social media post about the debacle by his Department of Government Efficiency chief Elon Musk. And Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth – who the Atlantic said posted sensitive strike plans to the chat – lashed out at Goldberg after landing in Hawaii, calling him a “deceitful and highly discredited” journalist and denying anyone was “texting war plans.”
The comments, which contradicted the richly reported details of the report, represented a familiar attempt by the Trump administration to create an alternative truth to discredit criticism.
But the reported facts about the chat – which the White House said appeared to be authentic – are damning. Beth Sanner, a former senior intelligence official,…
Read More: Damning Yemen group chat reflects an administration indifferent to the rule
