Everyone has been there. You were added to a group chat that you're not supposed to be a part of, and you can't seem to stop the messages. Or, more embarrassingly, you've added someone else to a group chat they were not supposed to see. But most people have not done so with Top Secret military plans and the editor of a major magazine.
Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief of The Atlantic, reported on Monday that he had been added by National Security Adviser Mike Waltz to an encrypted Signal group chat with the White House's principals committee to discuss U.S. war plans in Yemen. Goldberg received the first message at 11:44 a.m. on Saturday, March 15, and around two hours later, the White House announced a new air campaign against Houthi forces. The National Security Council confirmed the group chat was real and claimed Goldberg was added by accident.
The leak became an opportunity for Democrats to clutch their pearls about the sanctity of classified information. "You have got to be kidding me," groaned former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, whose own presidential bid was derailed by her mishandling of classified data. Goldberg himself accused the Trump administration of violating the Espionage Act and federal record-keeping laws, warning that some of the messages "could conceivably have been used to harm American military and intelligence personnel."
