Brian Fitzpatrick says House Intelligence Committee will ask to probe Signal ‘war plans’ group chat
Fitzpatrick said he “would presume” his committee will vote to investigate after a journalist was mistaking included in a group chat about war plans in Yemen.
The House Intelligence Committee is looking into how a discussion of national security plans including top members of President Donald Trump’s administration, led by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, mistakenly included a journalist from the Atlantic magazine.
During an interview Monday night on CNN, U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R., Pa.) said the committee would send an inquiry to the office of Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s director of national intelligence. Gabbard was reportedly among the officials on a group chat that discussed details of attack against the Houthi militia in Yemen on Signal, an encrypted messaging app often used by journalists.
Fitzpatrick said that he “would presume” his committee will vote to investigate the matter, but that it would depend on the information it received from Gabbard’s office.
“If the interrogatory comes back that hearings are warranted, which they may very well be, we bring the witnesses in, we’ll agree on who those witnesses should be, we’ll gather the facts in a [sensitive compartmented information facility] outside of the view of the camera,” Fitzpatrick said. “Then figure out the next steps.”
It is unclear if the inquiry had been sent as of Tuesday afternoon. A spokesperson for Fitzpatrick did not immediately return a request for comment.
The House Intelligence Committee, which oversees U.S. intelligence agencies, is composed of 25 members of Congress — 14 Republicans and 11 Democrats. In addition to Fitzpatrick, there are two other Pennsylvania representatives on the committee — Republican Scott Perry and Democrat Chrissy Houlahan.
“This stunning lack of operational security by [Hegseth] is just another illustration of his gross incompetence. He’s a danger to the nation and our troops, here and abroad,” Houlahan wrote in a statement shared on social media Monday. “I want an immediate explanation of how this happened and a clear understanding of all the laws broken. I believe the classified information shared in this Signal chat is in direct violation of the Espionage Act, and action by Congress is required.”
Over in the Senate, Sen. Roger Wicker (R., Miss.), the head of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told reporters Monday that senators would “be looking into it” but stopped short of saying whether anyone should be held accountable.
“I think that depends on the investigation, but it’s definitely a concern,” Wicker said. “It appears that mistakes were made, no question.”
Fitzpatrick and other Republicans appear to be treading lightly as party leaders attempt to brush away the controversy. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) described the incident as a “serious mistake” but said he did not believe anyone deserved to be fired or held accountable. During a phone conversation Tuesday with NBC News, Trump described the controversy as a “glitch” and backed the officials involved in the chat, claiming it had “no impact at all” on the attack.
Democrats have been more critical. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) called for a bipartisan investigation Tuesday, drawing parallels to the outrage among Republicans after then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton used a private email server for official communications.
“Any Senate Republican who was up in arms years ago about emails and unsecured servers should be outraged by the secretary of defense’s carelessness,” Schumer said.
“If true, these allegations are just shocking,” U.S. Sen. Chris Coons (D., Del.) said Monday during an interview on CNN. “The idea the secretary of defense shared detailed, highly classified war plans for what exact munitions were going to be dropped on what targets at what times could have put American service members at risk, violates some of the most basic standards for sharing highly classified military operational data, and calls for an immediate oversight hearing and investigation.”
The group chat ‘appears to be authentic’
Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief of the Atlantic, wrote that he was mistakenly included on a group chat that appeared to include Gabbard, Hegseth, National Security Adviser Michael Waltz, Vice President JD Vance, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. There, the group discussed war plans hours before U.S. forces struck Houthi militia in Yemen on Sunday.
Brian Hughes, a spokesperson for the National Security Council, said in a statement to Goldberg the thread “appears to be authentic” and officials were reviewing how he was added to their group chat.
During testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, Ratcliffe confirmed he was among those on the group chat but denied discussing classified material. He did admit, however, that the discussion of military targets should take place only on classified systems.
“Pre-decisional strike deliberation should be conducted through classified channels,” Ratcliffe testified.
Gabbard, who also appeared before Congress on Tuesday, refused to confirm or deny she was the “TG” on the group chat Goldberg was included on, citing a review of the incident. Gabbard did confirm she was overseas while the group chat took place.
“I won’t speak to this because it’s under review by the National Security Council,” Gabbard testified Tuesday, adding that the review includes “how the journalist was inadvertently added to the group chat and what occurred within that chat across the board.”