Top Democrats call for an investigation into how war plans were shared with a journalist on Signal. And, federal employees face complications and shortages when returning to the office.
Today’s top stories
CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard appeared before U.S. senators yesterday to answer tough questions about how the security breach that led to secret war plans being shared with a journalist could have happened. They were both included in a group chat on the app Signal, along with The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg. Other officials in the chat discussed the U.S. bombing campaign in Yemen. The messaging app isn’t a secure U.S. government communications system.
???? Ratcliffe stated that U.S. officials are allowed to use Signal to communicate for government work purposes. He and Gabbard said there was no classified information in the chat from an intelligence perspective, NPR’s Ryan Lucas tells Up First. They continued by saying that when it comes to specific military information about the airstrikes, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has the authority to determine what is classified. Lucas says top House and Senate Democrats called for an investigation into the breach.
As federal employees return to the office under the Trump administration’s orders, some have found shortages of desks, Wi-Fi, toilet paper and more. One remote employee of the Department of Agriculture was given a list of possible locations they would have to work from. One was described as a storage unit. Confused, the employee drove to the location and it turned out to be just that — a storage facility.
