JD Vance Messaged Infamous Leaked Group Chat Day After It Became Public: ‘Anything Going On?’

AP Photo/Evan Vucci

Vice President JD Vance fired off a message to the infamous Signal group chat among top Trump administration officials the day after The Atlantic reported its existence, according to screenshots included in a Department of Defense inspector general report.

On March 24, the outlet published a report by Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg, who explained that then-National Security Advisor Mike Waltz had accidentally included Goldberg in the chat, named “Houthi PC small group.” Goldberg suddenly found himself observing communications between high-ranking Trump officials who were discussing upcoming air strikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth gave group chat members a blow-by-blow of what to expect in the strikes.

The self-inflicted security breach was an embarrassing moment for the administration, especially Waltz, who was later removed from his position and appointed ambassador to the U.N.

On Thursday, the Department of Defense inspector general released his report on the scandal. The report concluded that Hegseth sent sensitive information via Signal from his personal cell phone a few hours before the bombings. Hegseth risked “potential compromise of sensitive DoD information, which could cause harm to DoD personnel and mission objectives.”

The report also found that Hegseth did not comply with federal records preservation laws.

On March 25 – the day after The Atlantic reported on the Signal chat – Vance sent an early-morning message to the group. The report contained a screenshot from Hegseth’s phone.

At 2:26 a.m., the vice president wrote, “This chat’s kind of dead. Anything going on?”

Screenshot

Given the context, Vance appeared to be joking.

The IG report’s release comes at a tumultuous time for Hegseth, who is grappling with the fallout from the administration’s ongoing bombings of alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and Pacific. In particular, the secretary is facing scrutiny after the U.S. Navy conducted a double-tap strike on a vessel off the coast of Trinidad on Sept. 2. Last week, The Washington Post reported that the Navy had initiated a second strike on a boat to kill two remaining survivors, an act that legal experts say is flatly illegal and against the rules of the Department of Defense Law of War Manual. Hegseth said the strike was ordered by Admiral Frank Bradley, who reportedly refuted the Post’s reporting by saying Hegseth had not given the order to all on board.