Trump Defense Officials Tell CNN Hegseth’s War Plans Were Classified: ‘Anybody in Uniform Would Be Court Martialed for This’
Officials in President Donald Trump’s Department of Defense are pushing back on the White House’s claim that a text chain that accidentally included a journalist contained any classified information, with one telling CNN that others would be “court-martialed” over the mistake.
The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg released the full texts — minus one redaction — on Wednesday from a Signal conversation that he was accidentally included in earlier this month. The text chain included Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, and other officials discussing the timing and other details about a then-upcoming attack on the Houthis in Yemen.
Goldberg himself pushed back on the White House’s spin that no classified information was shared, declaring that readers should “decide for themselves.”
CNN national security correspondent Natasha Bertrand reported on Wednesday that a defense official and a source briefed on the situation both said the information shared in the chat were clearly classified as they were about an operation that hadn’t occurred yet. CNN’s Kate Bolduan reported on the findings of Bertrand and national security Zachary Cohen.
“The information Secretary of Defense Hegseth disclosed in the Signal chat was classified at the time he wrote it, especially because the operation had not even started yet, according to a US defense official and another source who was briefed on the operation,” Bertrand reported on X.
Bertrand quoted a defense official who suggested the actions surrounding the leaks amount to a court martial.
“It is safe to say that anybody in uniform would be court martialed for this,” the official said. “We don’t provide that level of information on unclassified systems, in order to protect the lives and safety of the servicemembers carrying out these strikes. If we did, it would be wholly irresponsible. My most junior analysts know not to do this.”
Watch above via CNN.
