WASHINGTON — The White House said Monday a Signal group chat discussing plans of U.S. attack on Houthis in Yemen that inadvertently included editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, “appears to be authentic.”
The massive breach of national security comes following an article by Goldberg Monday, where he said he was privy to highly sensitive war plans on the chat. While Goldberg did not include any text information in his article, it was made public that Vice President J.D. Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and many other senior Trump officials.
“The plan included precise information about weapons packages, targets, and timing,” Goldberg wrote.
White House National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes released a statement following the story’s publication that the texts in the chat “appears to be authentic.”
“At this time, the message thread that was reported appears to be authentic, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain. The thread is a demonstration of the deep and thoughtful policy coordination between senior officials. The ongoing success of the Houthi operation demonstrates that there were no threats to our servicemembers or our national security,” Hughes said in the statement.
The news surprised many on Capitol Hill along with former officials — including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was hounded by criticism of her use of a private email server while at the State Department prior to the 2016 presidential election.
“You have got to be kidding me,” Clinton posted on X.
Hegseth disputed the claims late Monday despite several White House officials confirming the exchange happened.
“I’ve heard how it was characterized. Nobody was texting war plans, and that’s all I have to say about that,” Hegseth said.
He also labeled Goldberg as “a deceitful and highly discredited, so-called journalist who’s made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again.”
Goldberg shot back, calling Hegseth a liar.
“No, that’s a lie. He was texting war plans,” Goldberg told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins. “He was texting attack plans. When targets were going to be targeted; how they were going to be targeted; who was at the targets; when the next sequence of attacks was happening.”
President Donald Trump said he was not aware of the situation. A source told Fwrd Axis News when the President was made aware, he instructed a review to take place. Our source also said Trump has no plans to fire National Security adviser Mike Waltz
