Leaking top secret war plans is a federal crime, but sharing them with a journalist unintentionally included in a group chat with the most powerful people in the world? Republicans in Congress indicated Monday that they want to let that one slide.
“No, it’s not our issue,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Monday night.
“As I understand it,” Johnson continued, “the administration acknowledges that there was some error or oversight. They’re in the process of correcting it, and I’m told they’re doing an investigation to find out how that number was included.”
“That should be that,” he added.
Other Republicans were just as nonchalant about the situation.
“This is one of those learning moments,” Rep. John Moolenaar, who chairs the House select committee on the Chinese Communist Party, told NOTUS. “We all have to be sensitive in our communications.”
But if this is just a “learning moment,” the top defense officials in President Donald Trump’s new administration seem to have a lot to learn.
Not even three months into his time as national security adviser, Michael Waltz has committed a security breach that would make Edward Snowden blush. During the planning stages of a recent military strike in Yemen, Waltz created a Signal chat to discuss classified details of the strike with a host of the Trump administration’s top officials. He added Vice President JD Vance, Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and… The Atlantic’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg.
Goldberg lurked in the chat for days. After realizing the discussions were real — that this was, in fact, powerful U.S. leaders debating war plans via group chat and not some elaborate hoax — Goldberg wrote about it.
Republicans returned to Congress hoping to focus on reconciliation. But the immediately infamous “Houthi PC small group” ensured that wouldn’t happen Monday night. Unlike with Hillary Clinton’s private server saga in 2015, however, most Republicans were willing to ignore this security breach.
“A mistake was made. It happens,” Sen. John Kennedy said. “I don’t think when moms and dads lie down to sleep at night they’ll be worried about this.”
“Do they wish it hadn’t happened, of course,” Kennedy added. “But this is not keeping the American people up at night.”
As The Atlantic emphasized in its reporting, the messages were not just generic sentiments about a military strike. The messages included details about the Yemen strike and military movements surrounding it — details The Atlantic left out of the published story, fearing that the information would harm U.S. soldiers.
Rep. Adam Smith, the ranking Democrat of the House Armed Services Committee, said his staff was looking into possible prosecution against Hegseth under the Espionage Act. Hegseth is, according to The Atlantic, the primary member of the group to have transmitted coordinates and details amounting to what the military would call a target package.
“So we have to figure out, did they leak that target package,” Smith told NOTUS. “Because that target package would be classified.”
The messages also included the name of an active CIA officer, which was also omitted from the article.
Creating a digital chat to plan imminent military strikes violates multiple regulations regarding the handling of top secret information. What unfolded is Exhibit A in why such a method of communication is, at best, legally problematic.
When asked if there should be an investigation, Rep. Brian Mast, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, hardly entertained the thought of congressional action.
“No, I don’t see why,” Mast said.
Instead, the White House, Mast said, “should probably say, ‘What do I need to do to make sure that every operation that we do is that much better?’”
Rep. Warren Davidson, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, not only agreed that there should be no congressional investigation, but said that he believed Goldberg was added to the Signal chat intentionally.
“It might very well have achieved the purpose it was designed to achieve,” Davidson told NOTUS.
Of course, not every Republican was as blasé about the national security gaffe.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters that, “obviously we’ve got to run it to ground and figure out what went on there.” And Sen. Roger Wicker, chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he would “definitely” be looking into it.
“It’s a concern,” Wicker said. “There are always two sides to the story, but it’s a concern, and we’ll be looking into it very seriously. I’m going to be talking with members of both parties.”
Not that Democratic members will need much convincing to look into the scandal.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has already called for a congressional investigation. Rep. Gregory Meeks, the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he’d already asked Mast to begin an investigation. (Mast has already said he won’t open one.) Sen. Cory Booker called the breach “egregious.” And Sen. Mark Warner called the lapse “mind-boggling.”
“We need to have a hearing,” said Sen. Jack Reed, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Before the start of the 119th Congress, Democratic Rep. Chrissy Houlahan urged Johnson and Jeffries to add training requirements for members of Congress on the handling of classified information. That request didn’t make it into the Rules package.
Houlahan sent a letter to Johnson, Jeffries and Reps. Bryan Steil and Joe Morelle — the chair and ranking member of the House Administration Committee — urging them at the least to provide further training to members on committees that handle classified information, like Armed Services, Intelligence and Foreign Affairs.
“While Members of Congress bring expertise from various domains, most have never had to access, handle, manage, or disseminate classified information before joining Congress.” Houlahan said in the letter obtained by NOTUS.
“Such lapses not only compromise national security but can also undermine our intelligence community and endanger the safety of our citizens both at home and abroad,” she added.
As of Monday afternoon, Jeffries said he hadn’t had a chance to review the letter. He added that Rep. Jim Himes, ranking member of the Intelligence Committee, would give a presentation to the full Democratic caucus on Tuesday morning.
“This is about as serious as it gets,” Himes told NOTUS. “Everyone on that Signal stream should have known way better than to allow it to proceed.”
While his colleagues largely downplayed the situation, there were some Republicans who saw a problem. Republican Sen. Tim Sheehy, a former Navy SEAL, delivered his analysis of the breach in traditional military language.
“Somebody fucked up,” Sheehy told NOTUS.
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Ben T.N. Mause, Katherine Swartz and John T. Seward are NOTUS reporters and Allbritton Journalism Institute fellows.
Reese Gorman and Daniella Diaz, who are reporters at NOTUS, contributed to this report.