According To New Reporting, Classified Military Operation Details Were Shared In Signal Chat By Secretary Of Defense
WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV) led 15 of her Senate colleagues in a letter calling on the Senate Armed Services Committee, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to hold hearings to investigate why members of President Trump’s national security team were recklessly and illegally discussing classified military operations on unsecured devices. In the letter, the Senators also criticized the incompetence and carelessness of how these Trump officials mishandled the situation and inadvertently added a journalist to the group chat. New reporting details the classified military plans that were discussed in the commercial, unclassified messaging app.
In addition to Senator Rosen, this letter was signed by Senators Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Gary Peters (D-MI), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Jon Ossoff (D-GA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Mark Kelly (D-AZ). All of the Senators who signed are members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, or the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
“We write to you with grave concern regarding the recent revelations reported in The Atlantic about the Trump Administration’s reckless handling of classified information about U.S. military operations,” wrote the senators. “This gross mishandling of highly classified information has weakened our national security and could have put at risk American lives, particularly the men and women involved in the military strikes in Yemen.”
“For this reason, we are calling on the Senate Armed Services Committee, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence to hold joint or separate hearings to investigate this matter fully and get to the bottom of why members of the National Security Council were using unclassified, internet-connected smartphones and channels to discuss highly sensitive military information, when there are known ways to tamper with unclassified devices and when it is possible that dozens of foreign intelligence agencies are targeting the unclassified smartphones used by these senior U.S. government officials,” they continued. “Our national security demands that we act with urgency to uncover the full details of this severe security breach and implement measures to prevent such recklessness in the future.”
The full letter can be found HERE.
Senator Rosen has expressed deep concern over this violation of security protocols that put sensitive national security information and the lives of U.S. troops at risk. She released a statement strongly criticizing this inexcusable failure that could have endangered American lives, and called for Senate hearings and disciplinary action on the matter. Senator Rosen also joined a letter to President Trump demanding answers about this use of an unclassified, unsecured group chat for highly sensitive, high-level military planning in violation of our nation’s security protocols and the law.
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