Key Points
- The Atlantic has released a full transcript of the text exchange.
- The text leak has triggered outrage and calls for top US officials to resign.
- Defence secretary Pete Hegseth says no classified information was leaked.
United States defence secretary Pete Hegseth texted about plans to kill a Houthi militant leader in Yemen two hours before a surprise military operation meant to be shrouded in secrecy, according to screenshots of a chat released by The Atlantic.
The revelation that highly sensitive attack plans were shared on a commercial messaging app, possibly on personal cellphones, has triggered outrage in Washington and calls from Democrats that members of Trump's national security team be fired over the leaks.
President Donald Trump's administration has sought to contain the fallout from the revelation that the 15 March chat included The Atlantic's editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg on the encrypted messaging app Signal.
Hegseth has repeatedly denied texting war plans, and Trump and his top advisers have said no classified information was shared.
This has baffled Democrats and former US officials, who regard timing and targeting details as some of the most closely held material ahead of a US military campaign.
"I think that it's by the awesome grace of God that we are not mourning dead pilots right now," Democrat Jim Himes of Connecticut said at a hearing of the House of Representatives' intelligence committee.
Pentagon officials aware of the planning believed that information Hegseth texted was classified at the time, one US official told Reuters news agency, speaking on condition of anonymity, raising questions over whether, when and how Hegseth's text messages may have been declassified.
It has also renewed scrutiny of Hegseth, who only narrowly won Senate confirmation after a review that raised serious questions about his experience, temperament and views about women in combat.
The White House played down the idea that Hegseth or others would lose their jobs, saying Trump retained confidence in them.
Trump also played down the Yemen leak, saying on a podcast: "There was nothing in there that compromised ... the attack."
Goldberg, who had initially declined to publish the chat details, did so on Thursday AEDT.
Hours later, national security adviser Mike Waltz confirmed to the group the killing of the Houthis' top missile expert.
Reuters could not immediately establish what kind of building was brought down in the US military strike, how many occupants were inside, and how the detail squares with Pentagon statements there were no known civilian casualties.
Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said on X Hegseth was "merely updating the group on a plan that was underway & had already been briefed through official channels".
Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe were among members of a Signal group chat that discussed war plans and inadvertently included The Atlantic magazine's editor-in-chief. Source: AAP / Aaron Schwartz / Sipa USA
John Ratcliffe, director of Central Intelligence Agency, testified on Wednesday AEDT at a Senate hearing that Waltz set up the Signal chat for unclassified coordination and that teams would be "provided with information further on the high side for high-side communication".
Waltz has said he took full responsibility for the breach as he had created the Signal group.
But later, Waltz also played down the disclosure, saying on X: "No locations. No sources & methods. NO WAR PLANS. Foreign partners had already been notified that strikes were imminent."
At the hearing, Tulsi Gabbard, director of national intelligence, said Hegseth would be the one to determine what defence information was classified.
Hegseth did not answer a question about whether he declassified the information discussed in the Signal chat, telling reporters: "Nobody's texting war plans and that is all I have to say about that."
"The strikes against the Houthis that night were devastatingly effective. And I'm incredibly proud of the courage and skill of the troops. And they are ongoing and continue to be devastatingly affected," he said.
The US military has declined to offer basic details about the offensive in Yemen, including how many strikes have been carried out, what senior leaders have been targeted or killed and even whether the operation has a name.
