Texts disprove Trump admin claim that no bombing plans were sent to reporter
President Trump and administration officials claimed this week that no classified information about war plans was shared with a journalist, despite The Atlantic report that specific plans to bomb Houthi targets in Yemen were included in a Signal chat the reporter was inexplicably invited to.
The Atlantic initially declined to publish the exact text of the most specific message sent in advance of the bombings but changed course after the Trump administration's denials. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth told reporters that "nobody was texting war plans and that’s all I have to say about that." At a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said that "there was no classified material that was shared in that Signal group."
CIA Director John Ratcliffe said at the same hearing that "my communications, to be clear, in the Signal message group were entirely permissible and lawful and did not include classified information." Trump himself said the information shared was not classified.
