Spy chiefs to testify before House Intelligence Committee amid Signal texts fallout

Washington — Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe will return to Capitol Hill to testify before the House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday as they face blistering criticism over a group chat in which top Trump officials discussed sensitive plans to strike targets in Yemen. 

Gabbard and Ratcliffe are set to appear alongside FBI Director Kash Patel, National Security Agency Director Gen. Timothy Haugh and Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse to answer questions about the global security threats facing the U.S. The hearing begins at 10 a.m. 

The revelation that Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in chief of The Atlantic, was inadvertently added to a Signal group chat, where Trump officials discussed the details of a highly sensitive operation to bomb Houthi targets in Yemen, is likely to play a central role in the hearing. 

Gabbard and Ratcliffe, both of whom were on the message thread, were grilled by Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday about the security breach. Both acknowledged to lawmakers that they were part of the chat, while denying that classified information was shared over the commercial app. 

Shortly before the hearing began, The Atlantic released parts of the message thread that it previously withheld following denials from Trump officials that the information was classified. The newly released texts show that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared operational details such as the aircraft that would be used and a timeline of the strikes. 

“This was 31 minutes before the first U.S. warplanes launched, and two hours and one minute before the beginning of a period in which a primary target, the Houthi ‘Target Terrorist,’ was expected to be killed by these American aircraft,” Goldberg wrote. “If this text had been received by someone hostile to American interests — or someone merely indiscreet, and with access to social media — the Houthis would have had time to prepare for what was meant to be a surprise attack on their strongholds. The consequences for American pilots could have been catastrophic.” 

President Trump said Tuesday that he would “look into” whether administration officials should continue using the encrypted messaging app to communicate, but largely dismissed the severity of the leak. 

This week’s House and Senate hearings coincide with the release of the intelligence community’s annual threat assessment. This year’s 31-page report details threats posed by foreign illicit drug actors, such as drug cartels in Mexico, Islamic extremists, China, Russia, Iran and North Korea.