Trump Administration's Leaked War Plan Texts Scandal Explodes — With Pete Hegseth Being SUED Over 'Unlawfully Deleted' Messages
The investigation continues into Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and partners' leaked texts.
March 26 2025, Published 3:30 p.m. ET
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and others have been sued after secret war plans were mistakenly leaked to a journalist who was inadvertently added to a text chain, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
The reporter fired back at naysayers by releasing and revealing the entire Signal chat among the senior national security officials discussing American military strikes in Yemen.
FBI Director Kash Patel and National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard testified as the House Intelligence Committee held a hearing on worldwide threats.
Gabbard and Ratcliffe faced a second day of grilling before Congress to try to explain what happened, as calls grow louder for Hegseth to resign over the leak.
Adding to the outrage, nonpartisan and nonprofit organization American Oversight has filed a lawsuit requesting a federal judge formally declare the chat participants violated their duty to "uphold laws around the preservation of official communications."
The suit alleges that the defendants "failed to meet their obligations under the Federal Records Act" by using instant messaging service Signal to communicate and plan "active military operations from March 11, 2025 through March 15, 2025."
The watchdog group questioned why the app was even used in the first place, as it is not an authorized system for preserving federal records and does not comply with recordkeeping requirements, since messages on the app can be deleted.
Calls continue for Hegseth to resign.
American Oversight Interim Executive Director Chioma Chukwu slammed: "This reported disclosure of sensitive military information in a Signal group chat that included a journalist is a five-alarm fire for government accountability and potentially a crime.
"War planning doesn’t belong in emoji-laden disappearing group chats.
"It belongs in secure facilities designed to safeguard national interests — something any responsible government official should have known."
Text messages released by The Atlantic.
Hegesth has been adamant that no classified materials or war plans were shared justifying that he was was merely updating the group on a plan that was underway.
In response, journalist Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic, who was the odd man out on the text chain, went ahead and released the actual messages in their entirety.
Among the messages, Hegseth posted multiple details about the impending strike, using military language and laying out when a "strike window" starts, where a "target terrorist" was located, the time elements around the attack and when various weapons and aircraft would be used in the strike.
The Associated Press published a section of the messages, which each start with their timestamp:
"1215et: F-18s LAUNCH (1st strike package)."
"1345: 'Trigger Based' F-18 1st Strike Window Starts (Target Terrorist is @ his Known Location so SHOULD BE ON TIME – also, Strike Drones Launch (MQ-9s)."
"1410: More F-18s LAUNCH (2nd strike package)."
"1415: Strike Drones on Target (THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP, pending earlier 'Trigger Based' targets)."
"1536 F-18 2nd Strike Starts – also, first sea-based Tomahawks launched."
"MORE TO FOLLOW (per timeline)."
"We are currently clean on OPSEC" – shorthand for "operational security."
"Godspeed to our Warriors."
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Wednesday afternoon, Hegseth fired back at Democrats who are demanding he resign in a blistering response on X: "So, let’s (sic) me get this straight. The Atlantic released the so-called 'war plans' and those 'plans' include: No names. No targets. No locations. No units. No routes. No sources. No methods. And no classified information. "Those are some really s----- war plans. "This only proves one thing: Jeff Goldberg has never seen a war plan or an 'attack plan' (as he now calls it). Not even close. "As I type this, my team and I are traveling the INDOPACOM region, meeting w/ Commanders (the guys who make REAL 'war plans') and talking to troops." "We will continue to do our job, while the media does what it does best: peddle hoaxes," he concluded.
