Jeffries calls for investigation into national security officials over Signal mixup

Hegseth denied that the group was texting "war plans" and berated Goldberg as a “a deceitful and highly discredited, so-called journalist who’s made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again.”

By Misty Severi

Published: March 24, 2025 8:11pm

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Monday called for an investigation into how sensitive details about the Defense Department's strike plans on the Houthis in Yemen were accidentally shared with a journalist through the encrypted messaging app Signal.

News about the incident surfaced earlier Monday, revealing a text chain containing messages from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, Vice President JD Vance, and 15 other senior national security officials, was accidentally shared with Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic's editor-in-chief.

Jeffries called for Congress to investigate the incident, which he claimed showed a "reckless" administration who posed a danger to national security because of an "unqualified" Cabinet, according to The Hill.

“There should absolutely be a congressional investigation so that we can understand what happened, why did it happen, and how do we prevent this type of national security breach from ever happening again,” Jeffries told reporters. “This is reckless, irresponsible and dangerous.”

The lawmaker did not cite any names, but indirectly called Hegseth the "most unqualified person ever to lead the Pentagon in American history," the outlet reported.

“We were promised that Donald Trump was going to hire the very best. It’s all phony,” Jeffries continued. “This whole Trump administration is filled with lackeys and incompetent cronies.”

The call comes after Senate Majority Leader John Thune already promised to get to the bottom of the incident.

Hegseth in his own statement to reporters denied that the group was texting "war plans" and berated Goldberg as a “a deceitful and highly discredited, so-called journalist who’s made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again.”

The spokesman for the National Security Council confirmed to The Atlantic that the text chain appeared to be real and that the administration is investigating how the journalist was added to the thread.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.