Elon Musk leading probe into Signal mishap in US. Was classified ‘war plan’ shared? 10 points

The Atlantic reported "about a massive Trump-administration security breach" on Monday. President Donald Trump's most senior national security officials inadvertently sent text messages about the US' war plans to The Atlantic's editor-in-chief. The messages shared .

As per the report, Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, was mistakenly invited by US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz to a group chat on the Signal app, where an attack on Yemen was reportedly being discussed.

The group reportedly included US Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and others. They discussed sensitive plans to engage in military strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen.

A Senate hearing was held on Wednesday regarding the Signal chat goof-up. Was classified information exposed on the commercial messaging app? Were any federal laws violated? Will anyone face consequences for the leaks? These were some of the questions being raised as the "security breach" came to light.

President Donald Trump and his top aides aren't denying that they started a chat group in Signal to talk about a military attack on Yemen. Instead, they are insisting the information wasn't classified because the data didn't include the location of the strikes or specific sources and methods.

Here's all the latest you need to now about the Signal leak scandal:

1. US President Donald Trump suggested the Signal app, used by top US officials as well as journalists, could be "defective".

"I think it's all a witch hunt," Trump said. He said Wednesday evening (local time), “I don't know that Signal works. I think Signal could be defective...because you use signal, we use signal and everybody use signal but it could be a defective platform and we're going to have to find that out.”

2. As some believe that the "leaked" messages contained classified information, the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, told members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, "There was no classified material that was shared in that Signal group."

The White House also said the information shared with Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine, through the publicly available Signal app was not classified.

3. In interviews, several former defense and intelligence officials insisted that an exact location of a strike isn't needed for the information to be damaging to national security, ABC news reported.

4. The Trump administration has been facing criticism from Democrats – and now Republicans – after Monday’s "embarrassing" revelation that a team of senior national security officials accidentally added a journalist to a private group chat on Signal.

In rare signs of unrest, top Republican senators called for an investigation into the Signal leak scandal, the Hill reported. They demanded answers from the Trump administration as they raised concerns that it will become a “significant political problem” if not addressed properly, the Guardian reported.

According to the Associated Press, Senator Roger Wicker, the Republican chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he and Senator Jack Reed, the committee's top Democrat, will send a letter to the Trump administration, requesting an expedited inspector general investigation into the use of Signal.

5. Signal app founder Moxie Marlinspike seemingly mocked JD Vance over the incident. He posted on X on March 25, “There are so many great reasons to be on Signal. Now including the opportunity for the vice president of the United States of America to randomly add you to a group chat for coordination of sensitive military operations. Don’t sleep on this opportunity...”

6. Hegseth, White House National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and other administration officials on Wednesday uniformly insisted that no "war plans" had been texted on Signal, a claim that current and former US officials have called "semantics".

But the information Hegseth did post -- specific attack details selecting human and weapons storage targets -- was a subset of those plans and was likely informed by the same classified intelligence. Hegseth, in an X post, said the message chain included "No names. No targets. No locations. No units. No routes. No sources. No methods. And no classified information".

7. Mike Waltz, who has acknowledged he built the Signal chain and has taken "full responsibility" for the episode, amplified Hegseth's contention.

“No locations. No sources and methods. NO WAR PLANS. Foreign partners had already been notified that strikes were imminent. BOTTOM LINE: President Trump is protecting America and our interests," Waltz posted on X.

8. Several Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday called for Hegseth to step down. "This is classified information. It's a weapon system, as well as a sequence of strikes, as well as details of the operations," said Rep Raja Krishnamoorthi, a Democrat from Illinois who is on the committee.

9. Democratic lawmakers in the US House of Representatives sought on Wednesday to force the Trump administration to hand over records related to the disclosure of highly sensitive attack plans that were shared over a commercial messaging app, according to a document reviewed by Reuters.

It is unclear if the "Resolution of Inquiry," seen by Reuters, would pass a vote by either the House Foreign Affairs Committee or the full House of Representatives, but it would keep alive an issue that the White House has sought to downplay since the story was published in The Atlantic on Monday.

10. The White House reportedly asked Elon Musk and his team at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to help investigate how a journalist was included on a Signal chat with national security officials.

“The National Security Council, the White House Counsel’s Office, and also yes, Elon Musk’s team,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt was quoted by the Hill as saying when asked who was leading an investigation into the Signal mishap.

“Elon Musk has offered to put his technical experts on this to figure out how this number was inadvertently added to the chat, again to take responsibility and ensure this can never happen again,” she added.