By Anita Hamilton

National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard said Tuesday morning that "no classified information was shared" in a group chat message among senior Trump administration officials discussing an attack on rebels in Yemen that accidentally included a journalist.

"It was an advertent mistake of adding a reporter," added Central Intelligence Agency director John Ratcliffe.

Their comments come as lawmakers raise questions in response to news that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other senior intelligence officials in the Trump administration used the encrypted messaging app Signal to discuss plans to bomb Houthi rebels in Yemen earlier this month. The group chat included Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg, who wrote about the incident on Monday.

Signal is a free messaging app from the nonprofit Signal Foundation that provides end-to-end encryption to prevent interception. It is favored by many because it isn't owned by a for-profit company, such as Meta Platforms (which owns WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger), and its open-source security protocol is considered the strongest among messaging apps.

During the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on global security threats, Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, called for the resignations of both Gabbard and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as a result of the Signal incident, which he called "reckless" and "sloppy."

"It's an embarrassment," added Sen. Michael Bennet, a Democrat from Colorado. "You need to do better," he said during a heated exchange with CIA Director Ratcliffe.

While repeatedly stating that no classified information was in the Signal chat, Gabbard declined to provide further details on it because it was a "private discussion" among national security leaders.

The committee's vice chair, Sen. Mark Warren, a Democrat from Virginia, said it was "mind-boggling" that none of the senior officials on a group chat that inadvertently included a journalist "bothered to check" who else was on the chat. He added that the "Signal fiasco" was part of a "pattern of an amazing cavalier attitude toward classified information" that has "contributed to a broader erosion of American credibility with its allies. "

When asked if the Federal Bureau of Investigation had launched an investigation into the matter, Director Kash Patel said, "I don't have an update."

The White House has said it is looking into how the journalist's number was added to the chat.

Write to Anita Hamilton at anita.hamilton@barrons.com

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March 25, 2025 12:19 ET (16:19 GMT)

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