Pentagon chief, top officials sued for sharing military info on Signal messaging app

The American human rights organization American Oversight has filed a lawsuit in the federal court of the District of Columbia against US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and three others for using the Signal messaging app to discuss military operations against Yemeni Houthi rebels. 

The lawsuit was posted on the organization’s website, per Caliber.Az.

“This reported disclosure of sensitive military information in a Signal group chat that included a journalist is a five-alarm fire for government accountability and potentially a crime,” said American Oversight Interim Executive Director Chioma Chukwu. “War planning doesn’t belong in emoji-laden disappearing group chats. It belongs in secure facilities designed to safeguard national interests — something any responsible government official should have known.”

In addition to Hegseth and Gabbard, the lawsuit also names CIA Director John Ratcliffe, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). The document alleges that the actions of these individuals and NARA representatives violated US laws governing the preservation of government records and documentation. It points out that the Signal chat discussing the Yemen operation was set to automatically delete messages after a certain time.

The plaintiffs argue that when using messaging apps to discuss certain matters, government officials are required to copy the messages and submit them to the official information system. American Oversight aims to restore the deleted records and ensure their future preservation by the individuals named in the lawsuit.

"Our lawsuit seeks to ensure these federal records are preserved and recovered. The American people deserve answers and we won’t stop until we get them,” added Chukwu.

On March 24, Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, published an article stating that on March 11, he received a request to join a Signal chat from a user named Mike Waltz (the US National Security Advisor). Two days later, Goldberg received a notification that he had been added to a group chat where members of the US administration were discussing strikes on Yemen.

According to Goldberg, on March 15, a user named Pete Hegseth (the Pentagon chief’s name) posted a message detailing upcoming strikes on the Houthi rebel movement Ansar Allah in Yemen, including listed targets, weapons, and the expected time for the strikes — details that coincided with the timing of the first social media posts about the bombings.

In response, US President Donald Trump stated that no classified information was shared in the mentioned group. He emphasized his continued trust in all members of his national security team, including Waltz, despite the data leak scandal. Waltz, for his part, claimed that he did not know why Goldberg had been added to the private group.

By Tamilla Hasanova