WASHINGTON, March 26. /TASS/. US Vice President JD Vance has accused The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg of exaggerating the significance of the information he was able to obtain from a chat room in the Signal messenger about strikes on Yemen.
"It’s very clear Goldberg oversold what he had. But one thing in particular really stands out. Remember when he was attacking [CIA Director John] Ratcliffe for blowing the cover for a CIA agent? Turns out Ratcliffe was simply naming his chief of staff," he wrote on his X page.
Earlier, The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg said in an interview with political columnist Tim Miller that Ratcliffe had provided the name of an "undercover CIA agent" in the chat room. However, screenshots later published by the magazine show that participants in the correspondence were asked to provide the names of their associates and confidants who would be responsible for coordinating strikes on Yemen in the coming days and over the weekend.
On March 24, The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg published an article in which he said he received a request to join Signal, an encrypted messaging app, from a "Mike Waltz" on March 11. He was then included in a group chat dubbed "Houthi PC small group" with what appeared to be other top administration officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard and others.
For several days, "a fascinating policy discussion" was conducted in the chat, the article said. According to the editor, on March 15, user "Pete Hegseth" posted a message that contained details of planned strikes against the Houthis, including targets, weapons, and the estimated time of the start of the strikes, which, according to Goldberg, coincided with the time of publication of the first messages about the bombing on social networks.
Trump said that the abovementioned group did not leak classified data. The US president said that he trusted all members of his national security team, including Waltz, despite the data leak scandal. Waltz, in turn, said he did not know why Goldberg was included in the closed group.