The National Security Agency was reportedly aware of vulnerabilities in the messaging app Signal weeks before 18 top Trump administration national security and defense officials used the app in a group chat to plan the recent bombing of Yemen. Those vulnerabilities, an NSA memo warned, were being exploited by Russian hackers. Details have also emerged that at least two top administration officials who were in the chat were overseas, including one in Moscow — where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The use of the Signal app by the upper echelon of Donald Trump’s national security and defense team has rocked the nation, fueling concerns over the mishandling of sensitive—and potentially classified—information in ways that may be unlawful. These fears are seemingly compounded by Trump’s alleged mishandling of hundreds of classified documents, which led to criminal charges that were ultimately dropped after the U.S. Supreme Court granted presidents broad immunity from prosecution for official acts.

CBS News reports that the National Security Agency (NSA), an arm of the Pentagon, had “sent out an operational security special bulletin to its employees in February 2025 warning them of vulnerabilities in using the encrypted messaging application Signal.”

The NSA operates under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard.

The Pentagon also sent out a memo warning of Signal’s vulnerabilities and use by Russian hackers, just days after that group chat.

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“Several days after top national security officials accidentally included a reporter in a Signal chat about bombing the Houthi sites in Yemen, a Pentagon-wide advisory warned against using the messaging app, even for unclassified information,” NPR reported Tuesday.

“Russian professional hacking groups are employing the ‘linked devices’ features to spy on encrypted conversations,” the Pentagon’s memo warned.

It also notes that Google has identified Russian hacking groups who are “targeting Signal Messenger to spy on persons of interest.”

The Pentagon memo reminded users that “third-party messaging apps (e.g. Signal) are permitted by policy for unclassified accountability/recall exercises but are not approved to process or store non-public unclassified information.”

NPR’s Quil Lawrence noted that “NPR has seen DoD memo as far back as 2023 prohibiting mobile apps for discussing even much less sensitive info like ‘controlled unclassified information.'”

Last month, a Google Threat Intelligence memo warned of the use of apps like Signal by “military personnel, politicians, journalists, activists, and other at-risk communities.”

Critics argue that the use of Signal for “war plans” was against policy. During Tuesday’s Senate Intelligence Committee hearing CIA Director John Ratcliffe had insisted Signal was approved for use.

National security experts, including at least one former Trump administration official, have been highly critical of the use of the app by the 18-members in a chat.

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President Trump’s Ukraine and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff “was in Moscow, where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, when he was included in a group chat with more than a dozen other top administration officials — and inadvertently, one journalist — on the messaging app Signal,” CBS News reported on Tuesday. “Russia has repeatedly tried to compromise Signal, a popular commercial messaging platform that many were shocked to learn senior Trump administration officials had used to discuss sensitive military planning.”

Trump’s Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, acknowledged on Tuesday during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing that she was overseas during the Signal chat. The Associated Press reported the DNI “wouldn’t say whether she was using her personal or government-issued phone because the matter is under review by the White House National Security Council.”

The Wall Street Journal’s chief foreign-affairs correspondent Yaroslav Trofimov appears to be one of the first to note that Witkoff had been in Moscow during the time the chat had been organized. He notes: “The Signal app itself has high encryption. But if your phone is inside Russia, and especially if your WiFi and Bluetooth are not disabled, Russia can see what is inside your phone pretty easily.”

On Tuesday morning, U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) noted: “Not a single person out of 18 of the very most senior officials in this Admin — including the Director of National Intelligence and the CIA Director — voiced any concern with highly classified military plans circulated on Signal. You also can be sure this is not the only time.”

The Atlantic’s Dr. Norman Ornstein, a political scientist and scholar, responded to Congressman Goldman, writing: “Putin is giddy. He has compromised the phones of every top national security official in the Trump administration. No doubt has enough juicy information from what is likely to be multiple Signal chats to deeply damage American security. And possibly to blackmail some of them.”

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Image via Reuters 

Top Senate Democrats tore into the Directors of National Intelligence and the Central Intelligence Agency during a Tuesday hearing on global security threats, demanding answers after a bombshell report found they used an unsecured messaging app to plan a bombing in Yemen — possibly in violation of the law.

Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard refused to answer several questions from Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner (D-VA), including whether she participated in “the group chat with the Secretary of Defense and other Trump senior officials discussing the Yemen war plans.”

“Senator,” Gabbard replied, “I don’t want to get into the specifics,” a statement she made at least three times before the frustrated Vice Chair then asked: “Is this, is it because it’s all classified?”

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Gabbard would only say that the incident “is currently under review by the National Security Council.”

“Because it’s all classified?” Warner pressed. “If it’s not classified, share the texts now. Is it classified or non-classified?”

Tulsi Gabbard refuses to answer Warner’s questions about the Signal group chat pic.twitter.com/vMLfszfFMN

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 25, 2025

Gabbard ultimately told Warner that “there was no classified materials that was shared in that Signal chat.”

He immediately replied, “If there was no classified material, share it with the committee.”

“You can’t have it both ways. These are important jobs. This is our national security,” Warner said, as Gabbard remained silent and expressionless.

But several Senators appeared to be unconvinced or uncomfortable with her claim of no classified information in the Signal chat.

U.S. Senator Angus King (I-ME) told Gabbard that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth “put into this group text a detailed operation plan, including targets, the weapons we were going to be using, attack sequences and timing—and yet you’ve testified that nothing in that text, in that chain was classified.”

“Wouldn’t that be classified? What if that had been made public that morning before the attack took place?” he asked.

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“Senator,” Gabbard replied, “I can attest to the fact that there were no classified or intelligence equities that were included in that chat group at any time,” she insisted.

“So the attack sequencing and timing and weapons and targets you don’t consider should have been classified?” King asked.

“I defer to the to Secretary of Defense and the National Security Council on that question,” Gabbard responded.

“Well,” King, appearing somewhat dumbfounded, reminded Gabbard, “you’re the head of the intelligence community and you’re supposed to know about classifications.”

“So your testimony very clearly today is that nothing was in that set of texts that were classified,” King continued, noting that “if that’s the case, please release that whole text stream so that the public can have a a view of what actually transpired on this on this discussion.”

“It’s hard for me to believe that targets and timing and weapons would not have been classified,” he concluded.

Angus King doesn’t buy Gabbard’s testimony that war plans ahead of military strikes isn’t actually classified information pic.twitter.com/wxywXSkPhc

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 25, 2025

U.S. Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) further pressed Gabbard on what Senator King had seemed to suggest might be potentially classified information.

“In the Signal chain, was there any mention of a target in Yemen?” he asked.

“I don’t remember mention of specific targets,” Gabbard replied.

“Any generic target?” Senator Kelly asked.

Gabbard, pausing, then replied, “I believe there was discussion around ‘targets,’ in general,” she said.

Earlier in the hearing, Vice Chair Warner had blasted the Trump national security officials who were using Signal, the unsecured messaging app, to map out the Yemen bombing.

“There’s plenty of declassified information that shows that our adversaries, China and Russia are trying to break in to encrypted systems like Signal,” the Vice Chair said. “I can just say this, if this was the case of the military officer or an intelligence officer, and they had this kind of behavior, they would be fired.”

“I think this is one more example of the kind of sloppy, careless, incompetent behavior, particularly towards classified information, that this is not a one off or a first time error,” he lamented.

Warner, with Gabbard and Ratcliffe sitting in front of him: “If this was the case of a military officer or an intelligence officer and they had this kind of behavior, they would be fired.” pic.twitter.com/Rn3AWtZbkq

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 25, 2025

Watch the videos above or at this link.

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After initially claiming ignorance of a bombshell national security breach, President Donald Trump is now dismissing the allegedly potentially criminal use of an unsecured messaging app—and the possible sharing of classified information—by 18 top defense officials, calling it a “non-issue.” He’s also voicing support for his National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz, who is at the center of the growing scandal.

“Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man,” the Commander-in-Chief told NBC News Senior White House Correspondent Garrett Haake, who reports that the President told him he still has confidence in Waltz.

Trump opted to describe what some national security and legal experts have said is a possibly criminal act that could include all 18 of his top officials, including his Secretary of State, Attorney General, Secretary of Defense, Director of National Intelligence, and White House Chief of Staff, as a mere “glitch.”

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“I asked the President if he were frustrated that the story has gotten so much attention,” Haake reported. “He said no, calling it ‘the only glitch in two months, and it turned out not to be a serious one.'”

On Monday, The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg revealed in a bombshell report that he had been inadvertently invited to the group chat, during which the planned bombings in Yemen were deliberated, debated, and mapped out.

The President also attempted to move the focus away from the use of the open-source commercial messaging app Signal, which reportedly would likely have had to be on non-government phones, to the mission’s success.

“The President told me he believes the story is essentially a non-issue, and that Goldberg’s presence on the chat had ‘no impact at all.’ The attacks, he continued, were ‘perfectly successful,'” Haake added.

“When asked what he was told about how Goldberg came to be added to the Signal chat, Trump said, ‘It was one of Michael’s people on the phone. A staffer had his number on there,'” Haake and Megan Lebowitz reported at NBC News.

Waltz, whose account reportedly had sent the Signal invitation Goldberg, reportedly will not resign and will not be fired, Fox News reported earlier on Tuesday.

“A source close to the president told Fox News that Waltz’s job is safe and that he is not on the chopping block,” the right wing website reported. “Fox News is told Waltz has no plans to resign and is sticking to his schedule Tuesday. He will be talking to his Russian counterpart about a Black Sea ceasefire deal and has plans to speak to Trump as usual later Tuesday.”

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U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-DE), according to Deadline, on Monday wrote: “Every single one of the government officials on this text chain have now committed a crime – even if accidentally – that would normally involve a jail sentence. We can’t trust anyone in this dangerous administration to keep Americans safe.”

But on Monday evening, Politico had reported that Waltz’s future was “in doubt.”

“Nothing is decided yet, and White House officials cautioned that President Donald Trump would ultimately make the decision over the next day or two as he watches coverage of the embarrassing episode,” Politico reported.

White House staffers were reportedly on multiple text threads discussing what should happen to Waltz.

“Half of them saying he’s never going to survive or shouldn’t survive,” said one official.

“A person close to the White House was even more blunt: ‘Everyone in the White House can agree on one thing: Mike Waltz is a f—— idiot.'”

U.S. Rep. Don Bacon, a Republican of Nebraska, told CNN: “This is a gross error, and it’s intentional. They intentionally put highly classified information on an unclassified device. I would have lost my security clearance in the Air Force for this and for a lot less.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

GOP Rep. Don Bacon on Trump team’s Yemen group chat: “I will guarantee you, 99.99% with confidence, Russia and China are monitoring those two phones. So I just think it’s a security violation, and there’s no doubt that Russia and China saw this stuff within hours of the attacks… pic.twitter.com/UFnGPsLd51

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) March 25, 2025

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