US lawmakers push for action on Signal breach, warn of 'mourning dead pilots'

A powerful U.S. Senate Republican called on Wednesday for an official probe of Trump administration officials' discussion of sensitive attack plans on a commercial messaging app, after critics argued that U.S. troops could have died if the information had fallen into the wrong hands.

Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told reporters he and Senator Jack Reed, the panel's top Democrat, would ask President Donald Trump's administration to expedite an Inspector General report and provide a classified briefing.

"We are signing a letter today asking the administration to expedite an IG report back to the committee. We're sending a similar letter to the administration in an attempt to get ground truth," Wicker told reporters at the Capitol.

"The information as published recently appears to me to be of such a sensitive nature that, based on my knowledge, I would have wanted it classified," Wicker said.

A few of Trump's fellow Republicans have joined Democrats in expressing concern about the chat on Signal, an encrypted commercial messaging app, about the planned killing of a Houthi militant in Yemen on March 15.

The chat included officials such as National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, Vice President JD Vance, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who did not know that Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, was inadvertently included.

Gabbard and Ratcliffe have spent much of the past two days testifying in the Senate and House of Representatives about the incident, at previously scheduled intelligence committee hearings on global threats to the United States.
 

'THE AWESOME GRACE OF GOD'

Democrats criticized the administration for what they saw as playing down, rather than acknowledging, the incident.

"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 the House hearing.

"Everyone here knows that the Russians and the Chinese could have gotten all of that information," Himes said.

At the hearings, administration officials insisted the chat had not included classified information. Democrats disputed that, and Republicans acknowledged that it had at least included sensitive information.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham issued a statement saying he supported Trump's national security team and praised the administration's handling of the incident, but noted the content of the messages "do in fact detail very sensitive information about a planned and ongoing military operation."

Screenshots released by the Atlantic showed that Hegseth texted the start time for the planned killing along with details of further U.S. airstrikes that would normally be closely guarded secrets.

"This is classified information," Democratic Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois said at the hearing, calling for Hegseth's resignation. "It's a weapons system as well as sequence of strikes, as well as details about the operations."

Pressed on the classification issue, Gabbard said it was a matter for the Department of Defense. "I would point to what was shared would fall under the DoD classification system and the Secretary of Defense's authority," she said.

Separately, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and other Senate Democrats wrote to Trump and his top officials urging a Justice Department probe into how a journalist was inadvertently included in a secret group discussion of sensitive attack plans.

Trump administration officials have said no classified material was shared in the group chat on Signal.

"We write to you with extreme alarm about the astonishingly poor judgment shown by your Cabinet and national security advisors," the Democratic senators wrote in Wednesday's letter.

A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment.

Trump said his administration would look into the use of Signal but voiced support for his national security team.

Waltz, the national security adviser who organized the Signal chat, said in an interview with "The Ingraham Angle" on Fox News on Tuesday: "I take full responsibility" for the breach, but that no classified information was shared.

Additional reporting by Kanishka Singh and Richard Cowan; in Washington, additional reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Writing by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Mary Milliken, Howard Goller and Deepa Babington

(Reuters)