Was classified information shared? Senators overseeing military request
probe into Signal leak
[March 28, 2025]
By STEPHEN GROVES, AAMER MADHANI and MICHAEL KUNZELMAN
WASHINGTON (AP) — The top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Armed
Services Committee requested an investigation Thursday into how Trump
national security officials used the Signal app to discuss military
strikes and a federal judge said he would order the preservation of the
messages, ensuring at least some scrutiny on an episode President Donald
Trump has dismissed as frivolous.
Sen. Roger Wicker, the Republican chair of the committee, and Sen. Jack
Reed, the top Democrat, signed onto a letter to the acting inspector
general at the Department of Defense for an inquiry into the potential
“use of unclassified networks to discuss sensitive and classified
information, as well as the sharing of such information with those who
do not have proper clearance and need to know.”
The senators' assertion that classified information was potentially
shared was notable, especially as Trump's Republican administration has
contended there was no classified information on the Signal chain that
had included Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine.
Later Thursday, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg said during a hearing
for a lawsuit brought by a nonprofit watchdog, American Oversight, that
he’ll issue a temporary restraining order barring administration
officials from destroying messages.
Across Washington, the Signal leak presented a major test early in
Trump's second term on the federal government's system of checks and
balances meant to protect national security. Yet even as mechanisms for
oversight and investigation sputtered to life, it was a halting effort
as most Republicans seemed content to allow the controversy to blow
over. Meanwhile, Democrats slammed the Signal chat as a reckless
violation of secrecy that could have put service members in harm's way.
“This put pilots at risk because of sloppiness and carelessness,” said
Sen. Mark Kelly, an Arizona Democrat and former fighter pilot.
Kelly and other Democrats have called for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth
to either resign or be fired. “If this was an officer in the military —
at any level — or enlisted person, they would have been fired already,”
Kelly said.
Asked by a reporter Wednesday about the call by Wicker, of Mississippi,
and Reed, of Rhode Island, for an investigation, Trump replied, “It
doesn’t bother me.”
Classified hearing with administration requested
Wicker, whose support was crucial to Hegseth's Senate confirmation, is
one of the most ardent defense hawks in Congress and has said the
committee will request a classified hearing to follow up on the
inspector general's report, as well as for the administration to verify
the contents of the Signal chat. The contents, which were published by
The Atlantic, show that Hegseth listed weapons systems and a timeline
for the attack on Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen earlier this month.
Senate Republicans have criticized the discussion on Signal but have
stopped short of calling for the removal of Hegseth or anyone else
involved. Sen. Mike Rounds, a Republican member of both the Senate
Intelligence and Armed Services committees, said any oversight should be
done “in a bipartisan way.”
Still, Democrats are pressing to probe much deeper. Sen. Mark Warner,
the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he wants to
check the phones of those involved in the Signal chat for malware as
well as whether Hegseth had shared military plans on other Signal chats.
Warner said he expected support from Republicans in calling for such an
investigation, but so far Warner's Republican counterpart on the
intelligence committee, Sen. Tom Cotton, has given no sign he would join
in those calls.
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This combination of photos shows ranking member Jack Reed, D-R.I.,
left, and chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., speaking during a hearing
on Capitol Hill in Washington, Feb. 25, 2025. (AP Photo)
Meanwhile, the Justice Department, which has traditionally handled
investigations into the mishandling of classified or sensitive
information by both Republican and Democratic administrations,
showed that under Trump it would likely stay on the sidelines. When
asked at an unrelated news conference what the Justice Department
plans to do, Attorney General Pam Bondi deflected, saying the
mission was ultimately a success.
Echoing the White House, Bondi also insisted that none of the
information shared on Signal was classified, even though officials
have provided no evidence that that’s the case. Espionage Act
statutes require the safe handling of closely held national defense
information even if it’s not marked classified.
Bondi, who has pledged not to play politics with the department,
quickly pivoted to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and
former President Joe Biden, who were investigated for allegations
that they mishandled classified information but were not charged.
Both Democrats were subject to extensive criminal investigations,
and the FBI and the Justice Department have long track records of
such inquiries.
Trump is unhappy with a lawsuit and the judge overseeing it
In civil court, the lawsuit filed by the group American Oversight
against several Trump administration officials and the National
Archives and Records Administration alleges they violated federal
record-keeping laws.
That only further inflamed Trump's ire at the judiciary, especially
when the case was randomly assigned Wednesday to Boasberg, who was
already presiding over a case challenging the deportation of
Venezuelan migrants under wartime powers. In that case, the Trump
administration just this week invoked the “state secrets” privilege
to refuse to share details with the judge about the timing of
deportation flights to El Salvador.
Trump early Thursday declared it “disgraceful” that Boasberg had
been assigned the case in the Washington court. He added that
Boasberg, who was nominated by President Barack Obama, a Democrat,
is “Highly Conflicted.” Trump and his allies have called for
impeaching Boasberg.
In court Thursday, Boasberg limited his order to messages sent
between March 11 and March 15, and a government attorney said the
administration already was taking steps to collect and save the
messages.
Meanwhile, the White House National Security Council has also said
it would investigate the Signal chat. White House press secretary
Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Thursday that she had no update
on the status of that investigation.
“We’ve been incredibly transparent about this entire situation, and
we will continue to be,” Leavitt said.
Leavitt is one of three Trump administration officials who face a
lawsuit from The Associated Press on First and Fifth Amendment
grounds. The AP says the three are punishing the news agency for
editorial decisions they oppose. The White House says the AP is not
following an executive order to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the
Gulf of America.
___
Associated Press writers Alanna Durkin Richer and Eric Tucker
contributed.
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