The Donald Trump administration on Monday said that the case of Yemen attack plans leak in the commercially available Signal messaging app is over even as bipartisan criticism mounted and exposed divisions within the White House.
The White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt reiterated the administration's faith in National Security Advisor Mike Waltz. The US's attack plans were revealed as the Atlantic magazine's editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, was added to a chat group on the messaging app by Waltz.
Leavitt explained, without elaboration, that steps have been taken to prevent a repeat of the incident, and said that the administration is moving forward. “As the president has made it very clear, Mike Waltz continues to be an important part of his national security team and this case has been closed here at the White House as far as we are concerned,” she said.
The Atlantic magazine published last week the actual transcript of US attack plans on Yemen shared by high-ranking officials after its editor Jeffrey Goldberg got added mistakenly to the Signal chat alongside several high-ranking officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance and CIA Director John Ratcliffe.
‘Witch hunt’ against Waltz
{{/usCountry}}The Atlantic magazine published last week the actual transcript of US attack plans on Yemen shared by high-ranking officials after its editor Jeffrey Goldberg got added mistakenly to the Signal chat alongside several high-ranking officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance and CIA Director John Ratcliffe.
‘Witch hunt’ against Waltz
{{/usCountry}}Trump administration continued to downplay the scandal, with Donald Trump himself dismissing the issue as a “witch hunt” against Waltz.
Trump on Sunday attacked the media coverage of the scandal after Republican senator Markwayne Mullin defended the administration in an interview with NBC News and said the talk should be about Joe Biden's alleged failure to act against the Houthis in last two years of his term.
Trump, in a post on Truth Social praised the senator for his response, “A GREAT job by Senator Markwayne Mullin on beating back Kristen Welker’s, and the Radical Left’s Witch Hunt, on the never ending Signal story. They just don’t stop - Over and over they go!” he wrote.
Reuters reported on Monday that some senior members of the administration have been unhappy over the incident and the president himself had expressed anger at Waltz's conduct in private.
On Monday, Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee sent a letter to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, calling for the intelligence community to conduct an independent probe. This comes after the US Senate Armed Services Committee said on March 27, they had asked the Pentagon to investigate the matter.