The leading Republicans and Democrats of the United States Senate Armed Services Committee said on Thursday they asked the Pentagon to investigate the use of the Trump government signal application to discuss confidential attack plans.
In a letter to Steven Stebbins, interim inspector of the Department of Defense, Republican Senator Roger Wicker, president of the panel, and Senator Jack Reed, a prominent position, requested an investigation and evaluation of the facts around the department chat and policies “and policy adherence” about confidential information sharing.
The armed service committee supervises the Defense Department, authorizing its budget of nearly $ 1 trillion. Stebbins’s office said it was analyzing the letter, but did not want to make additional comments.
In the March 15 chat, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth sent a text message about plans to kill a Houthi militant leader in Yemen two hours before a military operation that was supposed to be kept confidential, showed screen catches released by The Atlantic on Wednesday.
Wicker had said on Wednesday that he and Reed planned a letter after critics say US troops could have died if chat information had fallen into the wrong hands.
Wicker and Reed also requested an assessment of the Department of Defense’s confidentiality policies, and how the White House, Pentagon, Intelligence and other agencies policies differ, if applicable, and an assessment of whether any individual has transferred confidential information, including operational details, confidential systems to non -confidential and if affirmative systems.
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Upon completion of the analysis, the letter dated on Wednesday, the armed services committee would work with Stebbins to schedule a meeting.
Although none of Trump’s republican colleagues in Congress has asked for any employee resignation, some joined the Democrats to express concern for the signal chat, an application for encrypted commercial messages.
The chat included National Security Counselor Mike Waltz, Vice President JD Vance, National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard, CIA director John Ratcliffe and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
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Government officials did not know that Atlantic’s chief editor Jeffrey Goldberg had been inadvertently included in the discussion-but also raised concerns about national security in Washington.
A wide range of Democrats has called for the resignation of Hegseth and others who participated in the chat.
Government officials argued and in some cases tried to minimize the incident, focusing instead of knowing if any of the information was confidential and which agency could have classified it as such.
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They also insisted that the information did not include “war plans,” although messages listed the planned attack time and equipment – including aircraft – to be used.
“I am shocked by the blatant security violation by high government officials,” said Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski at X.
“Their disrespect for strict protections and safe channels could have compromised a high -risk operation and put our military at risk. I hope this will serve as a warning that operational safety should be a top priority for everyone – especially for our leaders,” she said.
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The Defense Department inspector, an aparti -in -fact employee in charge of eliminating waste, fraud and abuse, has been one of several employees Trump has settled since he began his second term in January. Trump has not yet named a permanent substitute.
