Embarrassing Washington message app textpose labelled a ‘witch hunt’ by Donald Trump

Abigail Hauslohner, Warren P. Strobel
AFP
Demorcrat Senator Raja Krishnamoorthi points to leaked text messages from Pete Hegseth during an annual worldwide threats assessment hearing at the Longworth House Office Building on in Washington
Demorcrat Senator Raja Krishnamoorthi points to leaked text messages from Pete Hegseth during an annual worldwide threats assessment hearing at the Longworth House Office Building on in Washington Credit: Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images

US President Donald Trump dismissed the scandal over leaked plans for Yemen air strikes as a “witch hunt” and defended his embattled Pentagon chiefamid calls by Democrats for him to quit.

It follows shock revelations from German news magazine Der Spiegel that the private data of Mr Trump’s top security advisers could be accessed online, leaving them vulnerable to having spyware installed on their devices

Mr Trump lashed out after the Atlantic Magazine published the transcript of messages accidentally shared with its editor in a chat group of senior US officials on Signal, a commercially available messaging app.

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Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth revealed details in the chat including the times of strikes on Iran-backed Huthi rebels and the type of aircraft, missiles and drones used, before the attacks actually happened, the Atlantic said.

“Hegseth is doing a great job, he had nothing to do with this,” Trump said when asked whether Mr Hegseth should consider his position.

“How do you bring Hegseth into this? Look, look it’s all a witch hunt.”

Mr Trump said no classified information was shared in the breach, and added that National Security Advisor Mike Waltz “took responsibility” for the error.

It was Mr Waltz who mistakenly added journalist Jeffrey Goldberg to the chat, sparking what has been dubbed “Signalgate” in the biggest scandal since Mr Trump returned to power in January.

The Atlatic initially withheld the details of the attack plans, but finally published them on Thursday after White House had insisted that no classified details were involved and attacked Goldberg as a liar.

The White House and a string of officials involved in the chat lined up to try to downplay the story as the pressure mounted.

Mr Hegseth said the exchange on March 15 involved “No names. No targets.”

US Vice-President JD Vance, who fired a rifle on a shooting range while visiting a Marines base near Washington, said the Atlantic had “overplayed” what happened. Only Secretary of State Marco Rubio admitted that there had been a “big mistake,” while highlighting his own limited role.

 JD Vance  shoots with U.S. Marines at a gun range during a visit to Marine Corps Base Quantico.
JD Vance shoots with U.S. Marines at a gun range during a visit to Marine Corps Base Quantico. Credit: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Democrats have trained their fire on Mr Hegseth. a former Fox News contributor and veteran.

“The secretary of defence should be fired immediately if he’s not man enough to own up to his mistakes and resign in disgrace,” House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said.

Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth said Trump should sack all the officials in the chat and called Hegseth a “liar” who “could’ve gotten our pilots killed.”

Meanwhile Roger Wicker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he was seeking an independent report from the Trump administration.

The Atlantic said the texting was done barely 30 minutes before the first US warplanes took off to hit the Huthis on March 15 — and two hours before the first target was expected to be bombed.

“1215et: F-18s LAUNCH (1st strike package)”, Hegseth writes, referring to US Navy jet fighters, before adding that “Target Terrorist is @ his Known Location so SHOULD BE ON TIME,” the message read.

“1415: Strike Drones on Target (THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP, pending earlier ‘Trigger Based’ targets).”

Mr Hegseth also wrote about the use of US drones and Tomahawk cruise missiles. A short time later, Waltz sent real-time intelligence on the aftermath of an attack. writing that US forces had identified the target “walking into his girlfriend’s building and it’s now collapsed.”

Peppered with questions at a daily press briefing, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt described Goldberg as an “anti-Trump hater.”

Der Spiegel reported the mobile phone numbers, email addresses and passwords used by Mr Waltz, Mr Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard could be found via commercial data-search services and hacked data dumped online.

The phone numbers and email addresses — mostly current — were in some cases used for Instagram and LinkedIn profiles, cloud-storage service Dropbox, and apps that track a user’s location.

The Gabbard and Waltz numbers were reportedly linked to accounts on messaging services WhatsApp and Signal.

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