Topics: US News, Politics, Donald Trump, Technology
The journalist who was accidentally invited into a group chat by Trump administration officials has said that he's weighing up whether to reveal more messages.
On Tuesday (25 March) The Atlantic's editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg revealed that he had been accidentally invited into a Signal group chat, with over a dozen senior Trump administration officials including Vice President JD Vance, the secretary of state Marco Rubio, secretary of defence Pete Hegseth, and several others.
Goldberg said he received the Signal - an open-source encrypted messaging service - invitation to 'Houthi PC small group' from national security advisor Mike Waltz, who was also in the group chat.
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The material in the text chain 'contained operational details of forthcoming strikes on Iran-backed Houthi-rebels in Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the US would be deploying, and attack sequencing', Goldberg reported.
One day on from the published report and Goldberg says he's weighing up whether to release the 'full transcript' after The White House claimed that 'nothing classified' was discussed.
Meanwhile, in an interview with Fox News' Laura Ingraham, Waltz reiterated there was 'no classified information' included on the exchange, while Trump also claimed the information wasn't classified 'as I understand it', the BBC reports.
And Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth told reporters: "You're talking about a deceitful and highly discredited so-called journalist who's made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again."
Speaking about the messages, Goldberg told The Bulwark podcast: "At moments like this, when they're under pressure because they've been caught with their hand in the cookie jar or whatever, you know, they will just literally say anything to get out of the moment.
“... I get the defensive reaction. But my obligation, I feel, is to the idea that we take national security information seriously.
“Maybe in the coming days, I’ll be able to say, ‘OK, I have a plan to have this materiel vetted publicly.’ But I’m not going to say that now.”
Goldberg also claimed that an undercover agent's name was also included in the messages, which he withheld, adding: “I withheld her name. They named somebody who’s an active CIA officer in this thread, which is on Signal, and I withheld it. I didn’t put it in the story because she’s undercover.
“Just because they’re irresponsible with material, doesn’t mean that I’m going to be irresponsible."
As for whether Goldberg is legally allowed to release the full transcript, The Independent says journalists are usually protected if they obtain accurate information that it considered newsworthy, even in the case of the information having been obtained illegally by a third party.
They further report that Goldberg also said he'd omitted any information that he believed could harm the military or intelligence personnel.
Waltz has since taken full responsibility for the breach, telling Laura Ingraham: “Look, I take full responsibility. I built the group. My job is to make sure everything’s coordinated.”
Suggesting a possible reason how it happened, Waltz added: “Have you ever had somebody’s contact that shows their name and then you have somebody else’s number there?
“So, of course I didn’t see this loser in the group. It looked like someone else. Now, whether he did it deliberately or it happened by some other technical means is something we’re trying to figure out.”
