Jeffrey Goldberg, editor of US magazine The Atlantic, has claimed how President Donald Trump’s national security team accidentally included him in a secret chat room where military strikes against Yemen’s Houthis were discussed.
Goldberg on 13 March suddenly received an invitation from US presidential national security adviser Mike Walz to a closed group on Signal, “Houthi PC small group”, where senior US presidential administration officials were discussing issues related to strikes against the Houthis.
The chat room, which Goldberg mistakenly accessed, included 18 people, including US Secretary of Defence Pete Gegseth, Middle East special envoy Steven Witkoff and the president’s national security adviser Mike Volz.
As Goldberg notes in a piece for The Atlantic, the Pentagon chief sent chatters precise details about the locations of attacks in Yemen and types of weapons. In addition, participants discussed the cost of the U.S. operation and the possibility of shifting funding to the Europeans, since shipping in the Red Sea will be restored thanks to the actions of the U.S. military.
According to Goldberg, at first he didn’t believe it wasn’t a joke. but then he had reason to believe the group was real and eventually abandoned it, after which he reported the incident to Walz, Hagseth and other officials.
Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the National Security Council confirmed the validity of the Signal group.
Hughes said the agency is looking into how Goldberg’s number ended up in the correspondence, the publication said.
Goldberg suggests that Volz, perhaps by using Signal to discuss national security issues, may have violated several provisions of the Espionage Act. Lawyers interviewed by The Atlantic staff said a U.S. official has no right to correspond on Signal at all. The programme is not government-approved for sharing classified information, the publication clarified.