On Monday, The Atlantic’s Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg confirmed with the Trump Administration that national security was breached by his accidental inclusion in a text message group initiated by National Security Adviser Michael Waltz – 13 days after he first suspected his inclusion was a mistake.
Instead of immediately addressing the national security threat by asking Waltz if his addition to a Signal text messaging app group was a mistake, Goldberg apparently waited nearly two weeks – all the while suspecting that national security was being breached – before bothering to contact Waltz and other high-ranking officials to question his inclusion in the group.
Two hours after his inquiry on Monday, the Trump Administration replied, confirming he was added to the group inadvertently. Goldberg, then, promptly published his story, titled “The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans”:
“The world found out shortly before 2 p.m. eastern time on March 15 that the United States was bombing Houthi targets across Yemen.
“I, however, knew two hours before the first bombs exploded that the attack might be coming. The reason I knew this is that Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, had texted me the war plan at 11:44 a.m. The plan included precise information about weapons packages, targets, and timing.”
In his article, Goldberg concedes the danger to national security posed by the breach:
“Conceivably, Waltz, by coordinating a national-security-related action over Signal, may have violated several provisions of the Espionage Act, which governs the handling of ‘national defense’ information, according to several national-security lawyers interviewed by my colleague Shane Harris for this story.”
After receiving the Signal connection request, Goldberg:
- Waited five days – until after the military strikes – to remove himself from what he reports was a “massive security breach.”
- Waited another eight days before contacting Waltz to see if his inclusion in the group was a mistake.
Who knows how many unscrupulous characters accessed other group chats during that time, due to the faulty invitation process?
According to his own timeline account, Goldberg simply monitored the potentially-sensitive text exchanges until after the military strikes and waited a total of 13 days before calling attention to the mistake that made him privy to the conversations:
- Tuesday, March 11: “On Tuesday, March 11, I received a connection request on Signal from a user identified as Michael Waltz.”
- Tuesday, March 11: “I did not assume, however, that the request was from the actual Michael Waltz… It immediately crossed my mind that someone could be masquerading as Waltz in order to somehow entrap me.”
- Tuesday, March 11: “I accepted the connection request, hoping that this was the actual national security adviser.”
- Thursday, March 13: “Thursday-at 4:28 p.m., I received a notice that I was to be included in a Signal chat group.”
- Thursday: “After receiving the Waltz text related to the ‘Houthi PC small group,’ I consulted a number of colleagues. We discussed the possibility that these texts were part of a disinformation campaign.”
- Friday, March 14: “8:05 a.m. on Friday, March 14, "Michael Waltz" texted the group…. I was still concerned that this could be a disinformation operation, or a simulation of some sort.”
- Friday, March 14: “Then, at 8:26 a.m., a message landed in my Signal app from the user ‘John Ratcliffe.’ The message contained information that might be interpreted as related to actual and current intelligence operations.”
- Saturday, March 15: “Hegseth post contained operational details of forthcoming strikes on Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing.”
- Sunday, March 16: “The Signal chat group, I concluded, was almost certainly real. Having come to this realization, one that seemed nearly impossible only hours before, I removed myself from the Signal group.”
- Monday, March 24: “I emailed Waltz and sent him a message on his Signal account. I also wrote to Pete Hegseth, John Ratcliffe, Tulsi Gabbard, and other officials. In an email, I outlined some of my questions: Is the ‘Houthi PC small group’ a genuine Signal thread?”
Thus, by his own admission, Goldberg received and accepted the invitation to the Signal message group on Tuesday, March 11 – then waited until March 24 to confirm the authenticity of the group and whether his invitation to it was intentional. Obviously, Goldberg knew how to contact Waltz and the other high-level officials, because he did.
And, while Goldberg removed himself from the Signal group on March 16, the day after the U.S. military strikes, he then waited another eight days (until Monday, March 24) before contacting Waltz, et al – the same day he published his story.
Also on March 24, The Atlantic published “A Conversation With Jeffrey Goldberg About His Extraordinary Scoop,” in which Goldberg is interviewed by Staff Writer David A. Graham.
In the interview, Goldberg says it was on Saturday, March 15, that he realized both that the Signal channel was “almost certainly” real – and that he was going to write a story about it:
“I check on X around 1:55, and yes, Sanaa is being bombed, so then I have the realization that this is almost certainly a real channel and not just an elaborate fakery of some sort. And that's when I began to realize that I had to write about this massive security breach.”
The timeline Goldberg reports in his article exposing a “massive security breach” raises an important question:
Did The Atlantic’s Editor-in-Chief prioritize personal gain over national security by continuing to monitor the messages for five days and waiting 13 days before notifying National Security Adviser Waltz and the other administration officials?