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Hegseth shared classified Yemen strike plans in a Signal chat that inadvertently included a journalist

On March 15, 2025, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared detailed Yemen strike operational details — aircraft types, weapons packages, and attack timing — in a Signal group chat roughly two hours before the strikes began. National Security Advisor Michael Waltz had created the chat on March 11 and inadvertently added Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg on March 13, who published his account on March 24-25 after the administration disputed his description of the content.

Part of: Signalgate and the Absence of Accountability

Jurisdiction
Federal
Location
Washington, D.C.

Abuses documented

Actors

On March 15, 2025, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared detailed operational war-planning information for strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen — including aircraft types, weapons packages, and precise attack sequencing and launch times — in a Signal group chat titled "Houthi PC small group," roughly two hours before the strikes began around 1:45 p.m. EDT. National Security Advisor Michael Waltz had created the chat on March 11 and inadvertently added Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg on March 13, apparently after saving Goldberg's number under an NSC spokesman's contact entry. The chat also included Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, adviser Stephen Miller, and roughly a dozen other senior officials. Goldberg published his account in The Atlantic on March 24, 2025, and, after the administration disputed his description of the content, published the full transcript on March 25.

Former and current officials, along with multiple independent reviews, said sharing precise strike timing and weapons details before an operation would ordinarily be classified, and that using an unclassified, non-government commercial messaging app to convey it violated established Pentagon classification-handling procedures.

Updates

2025-03-27 — Federal judge ordered preservation of the chat's records [5]

Government watchdog American Oversight filed a Federal Records Act lawsuit, and U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ordered the administration to preserve all Signal communications from the chat covering March 11-15.

2025-05-01 — National Security Advisor Waltz departed his post [6]

Michael Waltz, who created the chat and inadvertently added Goldberg, was removed as National Security Advisor and replaced on an interim basis by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

2025-12-04 — Pentagon Inspector General found policy violations [7]

A Pentagon Inspector General investigation, opened after a bipartisan Senate Armed Services Committee request, found in a report released December 3-4, 2025 that Hegseth's personal-device use violated department policy, that the chat's content originated from classified documents, and that Signal use created unnecessary operational-security risk. Hegseth declined an in-person IG interview and did not provide his personal device for examination.

Why we recorded this

Sharing precise military strike timing, weapons packages, and attack sequencing before an operation is ordinarily classified information, and federal law requires such communications to be handled and preserved through government-controlled systems, not commercial consumer apps. This incident put Yemen strike operations and the people conducting them at avoidable risk, and it happened only because a journalist was inadvertently added to the chat — the public would otherwise never have learned officials were conducting sensitive military planning this way. A later Pentagon Inspector General investigation confirmed the underlying policy violations.

Sources

  1. The inside story of how Jeffrey Goldberg was sent White House war plans — NPR primary accessed July 9, 2026
  2. Full transcript of Trump team's Yemen attack plan that was shared on Signal — Al Jazeera (publishing The Atlantic's released transcript) primary accessed July 9, 2026
  3. United States government group chat leaks — Wikipedia secondary accessed July 9, 2026
  4. Messages with Yemen war plans inadvertently shared with reporter: A timeline of the Signal mishap — ABC News secondary accessed July 9, 2026
  5. Judge orders Trump administration to keep Signal records amid Yemen attack chat controversy — CNN primary accessed July 9, 2026
  6. Marco Rubio takes over for Michael Waltz as National Security Adviser — NPR primary accessed July 9, 2026
  7. Pentagon watchdog finds Hegseth risked the safety of U.S. forces with use of Signal — NPR primary accessed July 9, 2026

See also