In an accidental leak, Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, was included in a chat among top security officials on secret war plans.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared detailed secret plans for a U.S. strike on Iran-backed militants in Yemen with a group chat of top Trump administration officials that accidentally included a magazine editor.
The inadvertent leak, by officials using the publicly available encrypted Signal messaging app, raises alarming questions about the potential mishandling of national security information, which federal law dictates should only be shared through the government’s own approved secure platforms, former intelligence officials told USA TODAY.
The chat “appears to be an authentic message chain, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain,” said Brian Hughes, a spokesperson for the White House national security council.
“The thread is a demonstration of the deep and thoughtful policy coordination between senior officials,” Hughes said. “The ongoing success of the Houthi operation demonstrates that there were no threats to troops or national security.”
In an article published in The Atlantic on Monday afternoon, Jeffrey Goldberg, the magazine’s editor-in-chief, reported he was accidentally added to the Signal chat titled “Houthi PC small group” earlier this month by Mike Waltz, Trump’s national security advisor.
