The editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine revealed in an article on Monday that Trump administration officials disclosed to him crucial military details about air strikes on Yemen’s Houthi rebel targets on March 15, hours before the United States carried out the attack.
Jeffrey Goldberg, a veteran journalist, said the US government officials accidentally added him to a texting channel where they mapped out the strikes.
The US government has acknowledged that the message thread appears to be authentic. The incident has prompted accusations by critics of the Trump administration that senior officials were guilty of a major security breach.
Here is more about what happened, what was revealed, how US officials have responded, and what’s next:
What happened?
“The world found out shortly before 2pm eastern time [18:00 GMT] on March 15 that the United States was bombing Houthi targets across Yemen,” Goldberg wrote, as he opened his Monday article for The Atlantic.
“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 11:44am [15:44 GMT].
Here is what happened.
On March 11, Goldberg received a connection request from someone named Michael Waltz on Signal, an encrypted messaging service. Michael “Mike” Waltz is the US national security adviser.
Goldberg wrote that he did not initially think this was the actual Waltz trying to connect with him. He thought it could be someone pretending to be Waltz, who would attempt to get information out of Goldberg.
But the editor added that he had met Waltz in the past. “I didn’t find it particularly strange that he might be reaching out to me, I did think it somewhat unusual,” considering the contentious relationship Trump’s administration has with journalists, Goldberg wrote.
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