From March 11 to 15, 2025, a group of U.S. national security leaders were observed on a group chat using the Signal messaging service, conversing about imminent military operations against the Houthis in Yemen, code-named Operation Rough Rider. Among the chat's members were Vice President JD Vance, top White House staff, three Cabinet secretaries, and the directors of two Intelligence Community agencies. A high-profile leak occurred after U.S. National Security Advisor Mike Waltz inadvertently added Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of the The Atlantic magazine and moderator of the PBS weekly news program Washington Week, to the group.
On March 15, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth used the chat to share sensitive and classified details of the impending airstrikes, including types of aircraft and missiles, as well as launch and attack times. The name of an active undercover CIA officer was mentioned by CIA director John Ratcliffe in the chat, while Vance and Hegseth expressed contempt for European allies.
The contents of the chat became public on March 24, when Goldberg published a partially redacted transcript in The Atlantic. The White House's National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes verified the chat's authenticity. After other Trump administration officials disputed Goldberg's characterization of the redacted sections as likely containing classified information, The Atlantic published the entire transcript on March 25, to confirm the veracity of his assertion. The incident raised concerns about national security leaders' information security practices, as well as what other sensitive information they may have revealed, whether they were following records-preservation laws, accountability in the Trump administration, and other issues. The ensuing political scandal was dubbed "Signalgate" in the news media.
A forensic investigation undertaken by the White House's information technology office determined that Waltz had inadvertently saved Goldberg's phone number under Hughes' contact information. Waltz then added Goldberg to the chat while trying to add Hughes. Subsequently, investigative journalists reported that Waltz's team regularly created group chats to coordinate official work, and that Hegseth had shared details about missile strikes in Yemen to a second group chat which included his wife Jennifer, his brother, and his lawyer.
Background
United States attacks in Yemen
Due to the Gaza war, the Houthi administration in Yemen began launching attacks on Israel and against international shipping in the Red Sea, including the bombing, hijacking and destruction of commercial vessels. In January 2024, the United States and United Kingdom began a series of airstrikes on the Houthis in retaliation.
After assuming office in January 2025, the Trump administration claimed it would implement a more assertive response to Houthi disruptions of international shipping lanes than the preceding Biden administration had undertaken. Following the implementation of the January 2025 Gaza war ceasefire on January 19, the Houthis announced that they would stop attacking ships transiting through the Red Sea, except for ships affiliated with Israel. After Israel blocked humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, the Houthis resumed their attacks on March 11. On March 15, the United States launched another series of airstrikes on Yemen. These attacks were part of a campaign dubbed Operation Rough Rider by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, alluding to President Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders in the Spanish–American War.
Signal messaging app
Signal, a mobile messaging app, gained popularity among the general public, particularly after the 2024 Chinese telecommunications breach; the app offers features such as end-to-end encryption for all messages and voice calls by default, minimal data collection, and optional auto-deletion of messages. The US government discourages the use of Signal for official business because of records-retention laws and the app's security features possibly not working if the user's device is compromised.
On March 18, 2025, the Pentagon sent a department-wide memo warning, "Please note: third party messaging apps (e.g. Signal) are permitted by policy for unclassified accountability/recall exercises but are NOT approved to process or store nonpublic unclassified information"—a category whose release would be far less potentially damaging than that about ongoing military operations. A former NSA hacker said that linking Signal to a desktop app is one of its biggest risks, as Ratcliffe suggested he had done.
Certain Trump administration members involved in the Signal group chat had previously criticized Hillary Clinton for her email controversy: Donald Trump in 2016 said that Clinton tried to "bypass government security" and "sent and received classified information on an insecure server, putting the safety of the American people under threat"; Pete Hegseth in 2016 said that America's allies would be "worried that our leaders may be exposing them because of their gross negligence or their recklessness in handling information", Stephen Miller in 2022 said that "foreign adversaries could easily hack classified ops & intel in real time" due to Clinton's use of "unsecured" communications; while Mike Waltz claimed Clinton was able to "delete 33,000 government emails on a private server".
Other Trump administration members involved in the Signal group chat had also previously emphasized the need to strictly punish security breaches; Tulsi Gabbard on March 14, 2025, said: "Any unauthorized release of classified information is a violation of the law and will be treated as such", while John Ratcliffe stated in 2019: "Mishandling classified information is still a violation of the Espionage Act."
Members
The group's 19 members included these people, plus a CIA officer whose name The Atlantic withheld at the CIA's request:
- Alex Wong, Principal Deputy National Security Adviser.
- Brian McCormack, Chief of Staff for the National Security Council.
- Dan Katz, Chief of Staff for the Secretary of the Treasury.
- Jacob Reses, Chief of Staff to the Vice President of the United States.
- JD Vance, Vice President.
- Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic.
- Joe Kent, Acting Chief of Staff for the Director of National Intelligence, and nominee for National Counterterrorism Center Director.
- John Ratcliffe, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
- Marco Rubio, Secretary of State.
- Mike Needham, Special Adviser and Consultant on Foreign Policy Issues for the Department of State.
- Mike Waltz, National Security Advisor.
- Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Defense.
- Scott Bessent, Secretary of the Treasury.
- Stephen Miller, White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy.
- Steve Witkoff, United States Special Envoy to the Middle East.
- Susie Wiles, White House Chief of Staff.
- Tulsi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence.
- Walker Barrett, professional staff member for the House Armed Services Committee Republicans.
Leak
On March 11, 2025, National Security Advisor Michael Waltz established a group conversation on Signal that included several high-ranking administration officials, including Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, CIA director John Ratcliffe, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard (identified as "TG"), Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent (identified as "Scott B"), presumed deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller (identified as "S M"), White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and United States special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff.
As he created the chat, Waltz also sent a Signal request to Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine, to join the conversation. On March 13, 2025, Waltz added Goldberg to a private Signal group chat labeled "Houthi PC small group". Although his presence in the chat was visible to other members under the handle "JG", the other members were apparently unaware of his identity.
The group initially exchanged messages about staffing arrangements, with principals designating representatives from their departments for coordination purposes. In the subsequent discussion, the officials shared sensitive operational details regarding the planned military strikes in Yemen, including specific information about targets, weapons, and strike sequencing.
On March 13, Witkoff was in Moscow meeting with Russian leader and President Vladimir Putin, though it is not known whether he had a device with Signal with him at the time. Just after midnight Moscow time, the chat named an active CIA intelligence officer; according to a Telegram post by Sergei Markov, Witkoff and Putin were in a meeting until 1:30 a.m.
On March 14, discussion in the group turned to prospective military action against Houthi targets. Witkoff had left Russia and was in Baku, Azerbaijan. The account identified as Vance expressed reservations about the operation's timing and alignment with administration messaging, suggesting a delay of one month. This account stated:
I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now. There's a further risk that we see a moderate to severe spike in oil prices. I am willing to support the consensus of the team and keep these concerns to myself. But there is a strong argument for delaying this a month, doing the messaging work on why this matters, seeing where the economy is, etc.
The Hegseth-associated account responded with a rationale for immediate action, pointing to risks of delaying, including potential leaks that might make the administration appear indecisive. The group discussion included exchanges about European economic interests in Red Sea shipping lanes and the administration's policy regarding cost-sharing with allies, with the Vance-associated account stating "I just hate bailing Europe out again." while the Hegseth-associated account responded: "VP: I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It's PATHETIC. But Mike is correct, we are the only ones on the planet (on our side of the ledger) who can do this." An account presumed to be Stephen Miller's effectively ended the discussion by stating that the president had given a "green light", but wanted assurances that European nations would contribute financially to securing shipping lanes.
On March 15 at 11:44 a.m. EDT (UTC−4), the Hegseth-associated account shared what Goldberg described as detailed operational information regarding imminent strikes, including target information, weapons systems to be employed and attack sequencing. Goldberg stated that this message indicated strikes were to begin about 1:45 p.m. EDT. When most of the chat was published by The Atlantic, it showed that Hegseth revealed information including the launch times of F-18 aircraft, MQ-9 drones and Tomahawk missiles, as well as the time when the F-18 aircraft would reach their targets, and the time when the bombs would land.
About 1:55 p.m. EDT on March 15, Goldberg verified through social media reports that explosions were occurring in Sanaa, Yemen's capital. After the strikes, group members exchanged congratulatory messages. The Waltz-associated account characterized the military operation as an "amazing job", while other accounts contributed affirmative responses. The Waltz-associated account shared three emojis in response: a fist, an American flag, and a fire symbol. A user identified as "MAR", believed to be Rubio, congratulated "Pete and your team!!" referencing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The Witkoff-associated account sent a message with five emojis: two praying hands, a flexed bicep and two American flags.
Goldberg observed the conversation without participating and eventually removed himself from the chat, which would have automatically notified the group members as of the time he left. He received no inquiries about his participation or departure.
First Atlantic article
On March 24, 2025, Goldberg published an article about the group chat and its security breach in The Atlantic. He expressed the concern of security experts that the coordination of national security operations over Signal potentially violated the Espionage Act. Signal is not an approved government platform for sharing classified information. The experts also raised concern at the group chat's potential violations of federal records laws requiring preservation of communications regarding official government business: the Signal group was reportedly configured by Waltz to delete its messages after one week or four weeks. The inclusion of a journalist in the group potentially constituted an illegal disclosure of sensitive information to an individual without proper clearance.
Congressional hearings
On March 25, an annual hearing on the intelligence community's worldwide threat assessment was held by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and top intelligence officers were questioned about the leak. Republican senators Mike Rounds (South Dakota) and Todd Young (Indiana) also said they would ask questions about the leak in the classified section of the hearing. On March 26, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence held a hearing in the same context, and they discussed the leak as well.
Second Atlantic article
In response to the Trump administration's claims that no classified material was shared in the Signal group, Goldberg and Shane Harris published a second article in The Atlantic on March 26. This article contained the full text of the exchanges that took place during the March 15 attack on the Houthis, omitting only the name of a CIA operative. This revealed that the exchange included specific timing of planned military strikes and real-time reports on their deployment.
White House internal investigation
Following the leak, the Pentagon launched an internal investigation on April 3, 2025, after a request from the United States Senate Committee on Armed Services.