US senators from both parties urge formal probe of Signal chat attack plan

By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top Republican and Democrat on the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee said on Thursday they had asked the Pentagon to investigate the Trump administration's use of the Signal messaging app to discuss sensitive attack plans.

In a letter to Steven Stebbins, the acting Inspector General at the Defense Department, Republican Senator Roger Wicker, the panel's chairman, and Senator Jack Reed, its ranking Democrat, asked for an inquiry and assessment of the facts surrounding the Signal chat and department policies "and adherence to policies" about sharing sensitive information.

The Armed Services Committee oversees the Department of Defense, authorizing its nearly $1 trillion budget. Stebbins' office said it was reviewing the letter but declined further comment.

In the March 15 chat, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth texted about plans to kill a Houthi militant leader in Yemen two hours before a military operation meant to be shrouded in secrecy, according to screenshots released by The Atlantic on Wednesday.

Wicker had said on Wednesday that he and Reed planned a letter, after critics said U.S. troops could have died if the information in the chat had fallen into the wrong hands.

Wicker and Reed also asked for an assessment of Defense Department classification and declassification policies, and how the policies of the White House, Pentagon and intelligence and other agencies differ, if at all, as well as "An assessment of whether any individuals transferred classified information, including operational details, from classified systems to unclassified systems, and if so, how."

After the review is finished, they said in the letter, dated Wednesday, that the Armed Services Committee would work with Stebbins to schedule a briefing.

Although none of Trump's Republican colleagues in Congress have called for any official to resign, a few have joined Democrats in expressing concern about the chat on Signal, an encrypted commercial messaging app.

CABINET SECRETARIES, VP, INTEL CHIEFS ON CHAT

The chat included national security adviser Mike Waltz, Vice President JD Vance, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

The administration officials did not know that Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of the Atlantic, was inadvertently included in the discussion - a matter that also has raised national security concerns in Washington.

A wide range of Democrats have called for the resignations of Hegseth and others who participated in the chat.

Administration officials have discussed, and at times sought to play down, the incident, focusing instead on whether any of the information was classified and which agency might have classified it.

They also have insisted it did not include "war plans," although the messages listed the time of the planned attack and equipment - including aircraft - that would be involved.

"I am appalled by the egregious security breach from top administration officials," Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski said on X.com.

"Their disregard for stringent safeguards and secure channels could have compromised a high-stakes operation and put our servicemembers at risk. I hope this serves as a wake-up call that operational security must be a top priority for everyone—especially our leaders," she said. 

The Defense Department's inspector general, a nonpartisan official charged with rooting out waste, fraud and abuse, was one of several officials Trump has fired since he began his second term in January. Trump has not named a permanent replacement.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Additional reporting by Idrees Ali; Editing by Alistair Bell and Howard Goller)