--- title: Top Trump Officials Defend Signal Chat in Testimony to Congress description: Angry Senators described as sloppy and incompetent the use of the Signal chat by Pete Hegseth and others for an active military operation. canonical: https://time.com/7271504/signal-tulsi-gabbard-john-ratcliffe/ copyright: © 2026 TIME USA, LLC. All Rights Reserved. terms: https://legal.time.com/terms-of-service/ license_contact: syndication@time.com author: Nik Popli article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-03-25T16:50:42.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-19T07:51:05.761Z article:section: Politics og:title: Top Trump Officials Defend Signal Chat in Testimony to Congress og:description: Angry Senators described as sloppy and incompetent the use of the Signal chat by Pete Hegseth and others for an active military operation. og:url: https://time.com/7271504/signal-tulsi-gabbard-john-ratcliffe/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte77be7094d420dc5/6998c52b1500fbd174aa61a9/GettyImages-2206313750.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: US-POLITICS-INTELLIGENCE-CONGRESS og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Top Trump Officials Defend Signal Chat in Testimony to Congress twitter:description: Angry Senators described as sloppy and incompetent the use of the Signal chat by Pete Hegseth and others for an active military operation. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte77be7094d420dc5/6998c52b1500fbd174aa61a9/GettyImages-2206313750.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Top Trump Officials Defend Signal Chat in Testimony to Congress > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=5a0bf818-be04-43a1-b3b7-2b0bf4c8c491&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Top Trump Officials Defend Signal Chat in Testimony to Congress [Watch (HLS stream): Top Trump Officials Defend Signal Chat in Testimony to Congress](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/CBN6MGke.m3u8) (7:48)  _Published 2025-03-25. Two of the Trump Administration’s top intelligence officials defended the use of a group chat for high-level military planning during a contentious Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Tuesday, as Democrats questioned the national security implications of discussing sensitive war plans on a commercial messaging app._  by [Nik Popli](https://time.com/author/nik-popli/)  ## Nik Popli Staff Writer Mar 25, 2025 4:50 PM UTC Two of the Trump Administration’s top intelligence officials defended the use of a group chat for high-level military planning during a contentious Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Tuesday, as Democrats questioned the national security implications of discussing sensitive war plans on a commercial messaging app.  by [Nik Popli](https://time.com/author/nik-popli/)  ## Nik Popli Staff Writer Mar 25, 2025 4:50 PM UTC Two of the Trump Administration’s top intelligence officials defended the use of a group chat for high-level military planning during a contentious Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Tuesday, as Democrats questioned the national security implications of discussing sensitive war plans on a commercial messaging app. The hearing, which had been previously scheduled, came a day after a bombshell report by _The Atlantic’s_ Jeffrey Goldberg revealed that the Vice President, Secretary of Defense, National Security Adviser, and other top officials had used the unsecured platform to coordinate U.S. military strikes in Yemen, and had mistakenly included a journalist in the conversation. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, both of whom appeared to have been participants in the Signal group chat according to _The Atlantic_’s report, were hammered by Senate Democrats, who decried the episode as reckless. While Gabbard declined to confirm her involvement in the chat, she and Ratcliffe ultimately insisted that no classified information was shared. **Read More:** [_As Democrats Call for Resignations, Republicans React More Tepidly to Leaked Trump Officials’ War Plans Group Chat_](https://time.com/7271378/republicans-reactions-democrats-resignations-waltz-hegseth-atlantic-group-chat-leak/) Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the committee’s ranking Democrat, pressed Gabbard and Ratcliffe on how the incident occurred and why senior officials felt comfortable using an unsecured platform to discuss U.S. military action in Yemen. “If this were a military officer or intelligence officer, they would be fired,” Warner said, condemning what he described as “sloppy, careless, incompetent behavior” by the Administration. Gabbard, who repeatedly dodged questions on whether she was the user identified as “TG” in the chat, eventually asserted that the discussion was permissible under internal protocols. “There was no classified material that was shared,” she said, echoing a similar defense offered by the White House. In his article, Goldberg wrote that the chat contained information about weapons packages, strike timing, and target details for an active military operation—the March 15 U.S. air assault on Yemen’s Houthi militants. Ratcliffe maintained that “Signal is a permissible work-use application” for the CIA and that it was loaded onto his computer shortly after he was confirmed as the agency’s director. "It is permissible to use to communicate and coordinate for work purposes, provided, Senator, that any decisions that are made are also recorded through formal channels. So those were procedures that were implemented," Ratcliffe said, claiming that any formal decisions were recorded through official government channels. Gabbard and Ratcliffe agreed to comply with an audit of their communications in response to questioning from Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat of Oregon, who pressed them on their claim that they did not participate in classified discussions on Signal. "To be clear, I haven't participated in any Signal group messaging that relates to any classified information at all," Ratcliffe said. "Senator, I have the same answer," Gabbard said. "I have not participated in any Signal group chat, or any other chat on another app that contained any classified information." The Signal group, convened by National Security Adviser Michael Waltz, included Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Vice President J.D. Vance, and other senior officials, along with Goldberg, who was mistakenly included in the thread. “This sloppiness, this incompetence, this disrespect for our intelligence agencies and the personnel who work for him is entirely unacceptable,” Sen. Michael Bennet, a Colorado Democrat, said to Ratcliffe. “It's an embarrassment. You need to do better.” Republicans on the committee largely sidestepped the controversy during the hearing, which was intended to focus on “worldwide threats.” None of them asked about the chat scandal, instead focusing their questions on cartels, illegal immigration, and China. The White House has sought to downplay the incident, with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt insisting on social media that “no war plans were shared.” In an [NBC interview](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/trump-stands-national-security-adviser-leaked-military-plans-saying-mi-rcna197944) Tuesday morning, President Donald Trump dismissed concerns about Waltz or the larger scandal, calling it his Administration’s “only glitch in two months” and expressing continued confidence in his national security team. “Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man,” Trump said. Hegseth, for his part, pushed back on the original article, telling reporters Monday that “nobody was texting war plans.” In an interview with [CNN](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJQwmGEcwmU&ab%5Fchannel=CNN), Goldberg refuted that claim. “That’s a lie,” he said. “He was texting war plans, he was texting attack plans.” Goldberg chose to withhold operational details and the name of a CIA official he says was mentioned in the chat in order to protect the safety of intelligence officials and military personnel—but he could be motivated to release more from the messages now that Trump Administration officials are both insisting no classified information was shared, and refuting his reporting that the conversation did not involve war plans. Asked if Goldberg could be held legally liable if he decided to publish the messages, FBI Director Kash Patel, who was sitting beside Gabbard and Ratcliffe, refused to answer: “I'm not going to prejudge the situation, and that legal call is ultimately for the Department of Justice,” he said. **Read More:** [_In Congress, Calls for Full Signal Chat Transcript Grow Louder_](https://time.com/7271600/signal-chat-leaks-congress/) The controversy underscores broader concerns about security protocols in the Trump Administration. Former officials and intelligence experts have warned that using any unclassified messaging service to coordinate military operations represents a major breach of standard protocol, even if it’s a platform like Signal that is encrypted. Those concerns came to a head during the hearing when Sen. Jon Ossoff, a Georgia Democrat, pressed Ratcliffe on the severity of the mistake. “This was a huge mistake, no?” Ossoff asked. “No,” Ratcliffe replied. The exchange quickly grew heated as Ossoff and Ratcliffe talked over each other. Ratcliffe later conceded that adding a journalist to the chat was an “inadvertent mistake,” which did not appear to satisfy Ossoff. “There has been no recognition of the gravity of this error,” he said. Some Democrats have called for resignations in the wake of the reporting. Warner, the intelligence committee’s vice chair, has [said](https://x.com/MarkWarner/status/1904535761304576311) both Waltz and Hegseth should step down. "Putting aside for a moment that classified information should never be discussed over an unclassified system, it's also just mind-boggling to me that all these senior folks were on this line, and nobody bothered to even check," Warner said, referring to Goldberg having been included in the discussion. "Security hygiene 101: Who are all the names?" Rep. Don Bacon, a Nebraska Republican and a former Air Force Brigadier General, stopped short of calling for resignations, but made clear late Monday that he believed the officials on the group chat acted recklessly. “I will guarantee you, 99.99% with confidence, Russia and China are monitoring those two phones,” [he told CNN](https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-news-03-24-25#cm8noj3lh000m3b6rl73ib7qk). “So I just think it’s a security violation, and there’s no doubt that Russia and China saw this stuff within hours of the actual attacks on Yemen or the Houthis.” ## Transcript Yesterday, we stunningly learned that senior members of this administration and according to the reports, two of our witnesses here today were members of a group chat that discussed highly sensitive and likely classified information that supposedly even included weapons, packages, targets and timing, and included the name of an active CIA agent. Putting aside for a moment that classified information should never be discussed over an unclassified system, it's also just mind boggling to me that all of these senior folks who were on this line and nobody bothered to even check security, hygiene 101. Who are all the names? Who are they? Well, apparently included a journalist. There's plenty of declassified information that shows that our adversaries, China and Russia, are trying to break in to encrypted systems like signal. I can just say this if this was the case of a military officer or an intelligence officer and they had this kind of behavior, they would be fired. As I'm I think this is one more example of the kind of sloppy, careless, incompetent behavior, particularly towards classified information, that this is not a one off or a first time error. Director Gabbard, did you participate in a group chat with Secretary of Defense and other Trump senior officials discussing the Yemen war plans? Senator, I don't want to get into the specifics. Did you were you on you're not going to be willing to address. So you're not are you denying that? Will you answer my question, ma'am? You were not TG on this group chat. I'm not going to get into the specifics. So you refuse to acknowledge whether you were on this group chat? Senator, I'm not going to get into this. Why aren't you? Why are you going to get into the specifics? Is this. Is it because it's all classified? Because this is currently under review by the national security? Because it's all classified. If it's not classified, share the text. Now. As the white House previously. Is it classified and unclassified information on this text. I can confirm. Director Ratcliffe, were you on the group chat? Senator, I was on a signal messaging group. So you were the John Ratcliffe on that chat? I was. Thank you. Thank you. My communications, to be clear in a signal message group, were entirely permissible and lawful and did not include classified information. Well, we will we will make that determination because if it's not classified, share the text with the committee. Both the mishandling of classified information and the deliberate destruction of federal records or potential crimes that ought to be investigated immediately. And I want to make clear that I'm of the view that there ought to be resignations, starting with the national security adviser and the secretary of defense. Did Jeff Goldberg, um, somehow was it a did he create a hoax that allowed him to become part of this signal thread? Please answer the question. You don't don't don't insult the intelligence of the American people. Did he invite himself to the signal thread? I don't know how he was invited, but. But clearly not. Added. Clearly it was. Finish your sentence, please. Clearly he was added to the signal group. I your question. Is, you don't know that the that the that the president's national security adviser. invited him to join the signal thread. Everybody in America knows that. Does the CIA director not know that? I've seen conflicting reports about who added the reporter to the signal message. It's perfectly appropriate that there was, a reporter added, especially one that the that the Secretary of Defense says is deceitful, highly discredited, a so-called journalist who has made a profession of peddling hoaxes over and over again. Do you is your testimony that it was appropriate that he was added to this signal thread? No, of course not. And why? Why did you not call you? You are the. You answered my. You answered. You can. You answered the question. Let me ask you. When he was added to the thread. You're the CIA director. Why didn't you call out that he was present on the signal thread? I don't know if you use signal messaging app. I do. I do not for classified information, not for targeting. Not for anything remotely. Neither do I. Senator. That's what your testimony is today. It absolutely is not, Senator. Were you not listening at the beginning when I said that I was using it as permitted, and it is permissible? I agree that this incompetence, this disrespect for our intelligence agencies and the personnel who work for him is entirely unacceptable. It's an embarrassment. Senator, you. Need to do better. You need to do better. Thank you. I'm being gaveled. In the signal chain that we have been talking about. Was there any mention of a target in Yemen? I don't remember a mention of specific targets. Any generic target? I believe there was discussion Around targets in general. Mr. Ratcliffe. I think that's consistent with my recollection. Again, I don't have access to that. The deliberation as to whether or not we should launch a strike on another country. Would you consider that classified information, Miss Gabbard? Well, the information was not classified. This is a this is not I'm not talking about this. I'm just talking about deliberation as from principles as to whether or not we should launch a strike on another country. Would you consider that classified information? I'm not talking about what happened this week. There are other factors that would go into determining that classification. Mr. Ratcliffe. The deliberation between principles in our national security apparatus about whether or not to strike another country. Would you consider that to be classified information. Pre-decisional strike deliberation should be conducted through classified channels. This was a huge mistake. Correct? No. A national political. No. No. Let me answer. No, no. Director Ratcliffe, I asked you a yes or no question. And now you'll hold on a national political reporter. You can summarize. It how you want. Was made privy to sensitive information about imminent military operations against a foreign terrorist organization. Mistake of adding a reporter. And that wasn't a huge mistake. That wasn't a huge mistake. I think they characterized. It as embarrassment. This is utterly unprofessional. There's been no apology. There has been no recognition of the gravity of this error. And by the way, we will get the full transcript of this chain. 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