Signal is approved app for government use, says White House

WASHINGTON

The Signal messaging app, where senior US officials exchanged military plans in a chat group that included a journalist, is an approved application, the White House said Wednesday.

"First of all, Signal has been an approved app for government use. It's an encrypted app, and as I said, it's the most safe and efficient way of communicating, especially when people can't be in a skiff or inside a room physically together," spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters.

Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic reported Monday that he had been inadvertently included in a messaging group where Vice President JD Vance, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other senior officials discussed plans for an attack on Houthi targets in Yemen, hours before it took place on March 15.

The White House accused The Atlantic of peddling a "hoax" after Goldberg accessed advance details of US military strikes against the Houthi group through the group chat.

"I would characterize this messaging thread as a policy discussion, sensitive policy discussion, surely amongst high-level Cabinet officials and senior staff," Leavitt said, calling Goldberg an "anti-Trump hater" and a "registered Democrat."

She said Waltz had taken "responsibility" for the mishap, and alongside the White House Counsel's Office, they are looking into how a reporter's number was inadvertently added to the messaging thread.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk has offered to place technical experts on the issue to figure out how Goldberg’s number was inadvertently added to the chat, Leavitt said.

"We have said all along that no classified material was sent on this messaging thread, there were no locations, no sources or methods revealed, and there were certainly no war plans discussed," she added.

Republican and Democratic lawmakers expressed concern about the communication mishap, and blasted the incident as a "breach" of US national security, and called for a full investigation.

Several Democrats, including Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, demanded senior officials resign.

Leavitt stressed that President Donald Trump continues to have confidence in his national security team.

"What I can say definitively is what I just spoke to the president about, and he continues to have confidence in his national security team," she said, when asked if someone would lose his or her job because of the incident.