The top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee are now demanding an investigation into the inclusion of the Atlantic’s editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg on an encrypted text thread where Secretary Hegseth disclosed the schedule and methods of an attack on Houthi rebels. President Trump has so far said that the whole affair was a simple mistake and that no one is likely to be fired as a result. 

The Senate committee’s two leaders — Senator Wicker and Senator Reed — said in a letter on Thursday to the Pentagon’s inspector general that there should be a full account of what happened, why it happened, and how similar events can be prevented in the future. 

“On March 11, 2025, Jeffrey Goldberg, the Editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, was reportedly included on a group chat on the commercially available communications application called Signal, which included members of the National Security Council,” the lawmakers write. “If true, this reporting raises questions as to the use of unclassified networks to discuss sensitive and classified information, as well as the sharing of such information with those who do not have proper clearance and need to know.”

The two senators are asking for a review of “policies relating to government officers and employees sharing sensitive and classified information on non-government networks and electronic applications” as well as an assessment “of DOD classification and declassification policies and processes and whether these policies and processes were adhered to.”

Messrs. Wicker and Reed say the inspector general must also investigate “whether any individuals transferred classified information, including operational details, from classified systems to unclassified systems, and if so, how.”

Mr. Goldberg’s disclosure of the text messages themselves — including Mr. Hegseth’s minute-by-minute plans for launching aircraft and dropping bombs in Yemen — led some Republicans to speak out about the sloppiness on display by the national security team, specifically Mr. Hegseth and the national security advisor, Michael Waltz. 

The screenshots of the Signal messages which were shared by the Atlantic in a follow-up story after Mr. Goldberg had his credibility questioned by members of the administration show that Mr. Waltz was the one to add Mr. Goldberg to the chat, meaning that his number had been saved in Mr. Waltz’s phone. Mr. Waltz has said the two men have never met or interacted in any way, despite the fact that there is a photo of them together at the French embassy in 2021. Mr. Goldberg has maintained that they have met before. 

To explain how Mr. Goldberg ended up in the text thread, Mr. Waltz has offered some strange explanations. During an interview with Fox News on Tuesday, Mr. Waltz claimed that Signal may have automatically added Mr. Goldberg to his contacts after someone “maybe” texted the journalist’s phone number to him. Mr. Waltz said Signal could have “sucked in” the contact, which led him to accidentally include him. 

Mr. Trump himself has brushed off the whole event as a simple mistake, and has stood by both his secretary of defense and his national security advisor in the wake of the scandal. 

“I don’t think he should apologize. I think he’s doing his best. It’s equipment and technology that’s not perfect,” Mr. Trump told reporters on Tuesday. “That man is a very good man. He’s a very good man and he will continue to do a good job.”

Some conservatives, however, are placing blame squarely with Mr. Waltz, who was the administrator of the Signal chat who allegedly invited Mr. Goldberg to join by accident. 

“We need a clear answer how the sinister anti-Trump Jeffrey Goldberg got into internal comms of the White House. Mike Waltz was the admin of the chat. No one else could have invited Goldberg in,” wrote conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who has acted as an outside advisor for the president. “Something needs to be done about this.”