White House says case has been closed on Signal scandal

PHOTO CAPTION: Illustrative photo of U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth (Reuters)

By Jeff Mason, Gram Slattery and Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -     The Trump administration sought to put the scandal over its use of the Signal messaging app behind it on Monday, calling it case closed, even as the breach provoked bipartisan criticism and opened up divisions inside the White House.

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at the White House that the administration maintained confidence in National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, who has faced criticism for apparently adding the editor of The Atlantic magazine to a private thread describing an imminent bombing campaign in Yemen.

Leavitt said that steps have been taken to prevent a repeat of the incident, though she did not elaborate.

"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," Leavitt said on Monday. 

"There have been steps made to ensure that something like that can obviously never happen again, and we're moving forward," she said.

The Yemen bombing campaign, which targeted Houthi militants that have been attacking commercial ships in support of Palestinians in Gaza, occurred in mid-March, but was disclosed publicly by Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg on March 24.

Goldberg had been added to the Signal chat alongside several high-ranking officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance and CIA Director John Ratcliffe.

Waltz's handling of the incident irked some senior members of Trump's team but for now he appears to have survived the incident, a source familiar with the situation said. Another source, a Trump ally, said the president 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 into the Signal leak.The top Republican and Democrat on the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee said on March 27 they had asked the Pentagon to investigate the matter. 

 (Reporting by Steve Holland, Jeff Mason and Gram Slattery; Additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Katharine Jackson and Michael Perry)