Atlantic releases details of Signal text chain on Houthi attacks

Nick Wadhams, Bloomberg News on Mar 26, 2025

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

The Atlantic released a nearly complete transcript of the Signal text chain between top U.S. officials that inadvertently included its top editor, after President Donald Trump and several of those officials sought to play down the severity of the leak.

The magazine had withheld some details when it disclosed on Monday that its top editor, Jeffrey Goldberg, was added to a text group set up to discuss an impending U.S. strike on Houthi militants in Yemen. Goldberg recounted how he watched in real time as top officials including Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth debated the strike.

On Tuesday, Trump as well as several top U.S. officials in the chat, including CIA Director John Ratcliffe, denied that any classified information was disclosed. In a new story Wednesday, the magazine said it had come to believe that “people should see the texts in order to reach their own conclusions.”

In the newly disclosed text chain, Hegseth details precise times for two waves of U.S. attacks against the Houthis, adding that they would include strikes by F-18 Hornet fighter jet and MQ-9 Reaper attack drones. That would be followed by a second wave including more strikes by F-18s as well as Tomahawk missiles.

“1215et: F-18s LAUNCH (1st strike package),” reads one text from Hegseth. “1345: ‘Trigger Based’ F-18 1st Strike Window Starts (Target Terrorist is @ his Known Location so SHOULD BE ON TIME – also, Strike Drones Launch (MQ-9s).”

The text is potentially sensitive because The Atlantic said it was sent more than 30 minutes before the strikes actually occurred. If the Houthis or a foreign U.S. adversary had been aware of the texts, they could have prepared air defenses and jeopardized the lives of the U.S. fighter pilots launching the strikes.

“In the DNI’s own guidance, this type of information should be classified TOP SECRET,” former State Department spokesman and CIA official Ned Price wrote on X, referring to the Director of National Intelligence. The former Biden Administration official included a link to a government document that calls for the classification of “information providing indication or advance warning that the U.S. or its allies are preparing an attack.”

On Tuesday, the White House announced it was investigating how Goldberg got added to the chat and said the exchange appeared genuine. On Wednesday, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt called the reporting a “hoax,” arguing that the magazine had described the content as “war plans” in their original story but “attack plans” in the subsequent post.

“The Atlantic has conceded: these were NOT ‘war plans,”’ Leavitt wrote on X. “This entire story was another hoax written by a Trump-hater who is well-known for his sensationalist spin.”

Goldberg, in an interview with MSNBC, said Leavitt was playing a “weird semantic game.”

“I don’t even understand what that means,” he said.

--------

With assistance from Stephanie Lai.