Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe are back on Capitol Hill to testify before the House Intelligence Committee.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe are back on Capitol Hill to testify before the House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday as new text messages came to light from a group chat in which top Trump officials discussed sensitive plans to strike targets in Yemen.
Shortly before the hearing began, The Atlantic published additional messages that it originally withheld showing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth provided detailed information to the group of senior Trump officials about the strikes, including timing of when fighter jets would take off and what kind of weapons would be used.
« This was 31 minutes before the first U.S. warplanes launched, and two hours and one minute before the beginning of a period in which a primary target, the Houthi ‘Target Terrorist’, was expected to be killed by these American aircraft », wrote editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, who was inadvertently added to the group. « If this text had been received by someone hostile to American interests — or someone merely indiscreet, and with access to social media — the Houthis would have had time to prepare for what was meant to be a surprise attack on their strongholds. The consequences for American pilots could have been catastrophic. »
Gabbard and Ratcliffe were both grilled by Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday about the security breach. Both acknowledged to lawmakers that they were part of the chat, while denying that classified information was shared over the commercial app.
