Donald Trump’s administration remains under fire over the alarming security breach that saw Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, added by mistake to a Signal group chat in which the president’s most senior security officials discussed upcoming military action.
The magazine published their text exchange in full on Wednesday after the administration denied classified information was compromised.
Trump said his National Security Adviser Mike Waltz has nothing to apologize for and has attempted to shift the blame towards an unnamed “lower level” White House employee instead, despite Waltz himself saying he takes “full responsibility” for the disaster.
Also swept up in the scandal centered on an operation targeting Houthi positions in Yemen are Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Vice President JD Vance. Hegseth shared strike times and other details in the chat and is facing calls for his resignation from Democrats. The White House is pushing back by claiming there is a difference between “attack plans” and “war plans.”
Two members of the chat, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee yesterday and were extensively grilled on the breach. They are back before the House this morning.
Supreme Court upholds Biden rule requiring serial numbers and background checks for nearly untraceable ghost gun kits
The Supreme Court has upheld Biden’s regulations on “ghost guns” or untraceable firearms that can be assembled by buying a parts kit online. Justices agreed that the regulations are OK but “ghost guns” meet the definition of a “firearm” as it’s described in the Gun Control Act – a long-standing federal law that regulates guns.
Interestingly, this opinion contained photos of guns to show how they are classified as weapons. We rarely get photos in opinions so that’s kind of fun.
The opinion was 7-2 with Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissenting
Watch LIVE: MTG’s DOGE committee grills NPR and PBS after accusing broadcasters of ‘brainwashing children’
Big question: Did Pete Hegseth type that attack plan out?
Podcast host, Army veteran, and political consultant Fred Wellman raises an interesting point — did Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth type out the attack plan he sent out in the Signal group chat, or did he copy and paste it from another document or message?
This begs the question, what else is on his phone?
Watch LIVE: US security chiefs testify to House on worldwide threats after Signal ‘war plans’ chat leaks
Elon Musk issues ominous message to veteran Democrat after Melania Trump attack
The world’s richest man has issued an ominous message to veteran Democratic congresswoman Maxine Waters, 86, after she was filmed suggesting that First Lady Melania Trump should be investigated and possibly deported from the United States.
Waters came under fire from Musk after a video of her speaking at an anti-Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) rally at the weekend in Los Angeles went viral.
Madeline Sherratt has the story.
Vance insists Goldberg ‘oversold what he had’
With Trump seemingly reluctant to be drawn into this mess, it’s been up to Leavitt and the vice president to respond so far, with the latter once more attacking Jeffrey Goldberg’s credibility.
Here’s a counterpoint from our own Andrew Feinberg:
Trump’s most hated ‘radical left lunatic’ judge assigned to Signalgate lawsuit
US District Judge James Boasberg, with whom the president recently tangled over the deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador, has been assigned the lawsuit brought by American Oversight over the Signalgate debacle.
Trump’s response to that little development is going to be quite something…
‘This is what Pete Hegseth says isn’t a war plan?’
While the administration might quibble over the difference between “war plans” and “attack plans”, there now seems little doubt that the information shared in the Signal chat was highly sensitive and went into detail on exactly what was planned for the Houthis on the Red Sea, calling into serious question the denials we’ve heard so far that classified material was shared.
‘All of these people should be fired:’ Stephen Colbert rips into Trump officials
Colbert became the latest late-night host to skewer the Trump officials caught up in the Signal text leak, calling for them to be fired before going further and arguing that some should be jailed.
“What else are these ‘merit-based hires’ posting on?” the comedian asked.
“What are they doing? Where else? For all we know, for just $4.99 a month, you might see the launch codes on OnlyFans.”
James Liddell was watching.
Why the Signal chat leak might have exposed a big legal problem for Trump administration
The stunning revelation that The Atlantic’s Editor-in-Chief was inadvertently added to a group chat detailing recent airstrikes in Yemen has called into question the U.S. government’s ability to safeguard sensitive information and has exposed a potentially big legal problem.
The behaviour of Trump’s top security personnel “blatantly violated security regulations designed to prevent exactly this kind of leak, which would trigger administrative punishments,” attorney Mitch Jackson wrote on his Substack, citing the Espionage Act, the Federal Records and Presidential Records Acts, among others.
Here’s Rhian Lubin with what else the experts have had to say about the administration’s eyebrow-raising blunder.
Source: independent.co.uk