Democrats question officials on Signal breach, push for probe
PHOTO CAPTION: Capitol Hill is seen in Washington, U.S., December 30, 2018. REUTERS/Jim Young
By Patricia Zengerle and Doina Chiacu
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Democrats sought to hold Trump administration officials accountable on Wednesday for discussing sensitive attack plans on a commercial messaging app, arguing that lives could have been lost if the information had fallen into the wrong hands.
"I think that it's by the awesome grace of God that we are not mourning dead pilots right now," Democrat Jim Himes of Connecticut said at a hearing of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee.
"Everyone here knows that the Russians and the Chinese could have gotten all of that information," Himes said.
Testifying at the hearing on global threats were two top officials from President Donald Trump's administration who participated in the chat, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe.
It was the second straight day of testimony from those officials, after a heated session in the Senate where Democrats - and some of Trump's fellow Republicans - called for accountability and the officials insisted the chat on Signal, an encrypted commercial messaging app, had not included classified information.
Screenshots released by the Atlantic, whose editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg was inadvertently included in the chat, showed that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth texted the start time for the planned killing of a Houthi militant in Yemen on March 15 along with details of further U.S. airstrikes that would normally be closely guarded secrets.
"This is classified information," Democratic Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois said, calling for Hegseth's resignation. "It's a weapons system as well as sequence of strikes, as well as details about the operations."
'SECRETARY OF DEFENSE'S AUTHORITY'
Pressed on the classification issue, Gabbard said it was a matter for the Department of Defense. "I would point to what was shared would fall under the DoD classification system and the Secretary of Defense's authority," she said.
Separately, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and other Senate Democrats wrote to Trump and his top officials urging a Justice Department probe into how a journalist was inadvertently included in a secret group discussion of sensitive attack plans.
Trump administration officials have said no classified material was shared in the group chat on Signal.
"We write to you with extreme alarm about the astonishingly poor judgment shown by your Cabinet and national security advisors," the Democratic senators wrote in Wednesday's letter.
A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment.
Trump said his administration would look into the use of Signal but voiced support for his national security team.
Trump's national security adviser, Mike Waltz, who organized the Signal chat, said in an interview with "The Ingraham Angle" on Fox News on Tuesday: "I take full responsibility" for the breach, but that no classified information was shared.
(Additional reporting by Kanishka Singh and Richard Cowan; in Washington, additional reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Writing by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Mary Milliken and Howard Goller)
