Messaging Guidance:

Outstanding Questions on the Trump Admin's Signal Group

Yesterday, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe testified before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, where they addressed the Trump Administration’s disastrous use of Signal to discuss classified military plans. This is just the latest misstep in an Administration defined by rookie mistakes and general chaos.

Gabbard and Ratcliffe spent two hours obfuscating and conveniently forgetting whether specific, classified military targets, troop movements, and weapons packages were mentioned in a personal group chat. After yesterday’s hearing, we have more questions than answers. Here are just a few of them.

1. Per the Director of National Intelligence, there was no classified information in this text thread. If that’s the case, we all want to see the texts. Will the Administration commit to publicly sharing the communications?
   

2. Not one of these national security “professionals” objected to discussing sensitive national security information on a nonsecure group chat. That begs the question: Do other text chains like this exist? What other sensitive information has been discussed?
   

3. If a rank-and-file member of the United States military or intelligence community shared highly-sensitive or classified information on an unclassified device, that individual’s security clearance would be reviewed and they would be subject to prosecution. Will members of the Trump Administration be held to the same standard?
   

4. We know that our adversaries – including China, Russia, and Iran – target devices used by senior Administration officials. How can the Administration be sure that our adversaries did not access these sensitive details in real time?
   

5. If this Administration believes that Signal is secure enough to share sensitive military plans, then why did the Defense Department share a Pentagon-wide warning about Signal’s security vulnerability last week? Why did the National Security Agency warn employees that the app should “NOT” be used for communicating sensitive information?
   

6. The Administration maintains that no laws were broken and no classified information was shared. If that’s the case, in order to clear the administration of wrongdoing, would the Administration support an FBI investigation and Congressional inquiries into this incident?
   

7. The President’s lead negotiator, Steve Witkoff, was meeting with Vladimir Putin in Russia – where there is every reason to believe his devices and communications could have been compromised – while his colleagues shared sensitive information on Signal. Was Witkoff using Signal on his nonsecure personal device while in Moscow? Tulsi Gabbard testified that she was also overseas while the chat was active. Where was Tulsi Gabbard during this period?
   

8. The White House was informed of this intelligence leak as early as 9am on Monday. But several hours later, President Trump claimed he had no knowledge of the story. If President Trump was being honest, why did the White House not brief the President of the United States? 
   

9. How did the Trump National Security Advisor accidentally invite a reporter to listen in on a discussion about the timing and location of an active military strike? Why did he have the reporters’ contact information in the first place? Is he regularly leaking information to him?

Published: March 2025