A former Trump administration official and ex-CIA agent has revealed why he believes current Cabinet members used the publicly available app Signal to discuss Yemen attack plans, rather than a more secure system.
Kevin Carroll, who previously served under President Donald Trump in his first term and as a CIA officer, wrote an op-ed for The Guardian arguing National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and other administration officials use Signal to ensure their communication isn’t discoverable in legal battles or subject to information requests.
“I believe the reason these officials risk interacting in this way is to prevent their communications from being preserved as required by the Presidential Records Act, and avoid them being discoverable in litigation, or subject to a subpoena or Freedom of Information Act request,” Carroll writes.
Waltz mistakenly added The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, to a group chat on Signal last month that was used to discuss White House plans to strike Houthi targets in Yemen.
Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, and several other administration officials were also in the chat. Hegseth sent detailed information about planned U.S. strikes using the non-secure app, including the times of expected attacks.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has claimed Signal is an approved app for government use, while Trump has said the incident is “not a big deal.”
“This case has been closed here at the White House as far as we are concerned,” she said this week.
But Carroll argues the administration’s use of Signal to discuss these plans has put lives at risk.
“Loose talk on insecure phones about a coming operation jeopardizes the lives of US sailors and marines standing watch on warships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, naval aviators flying over the beach towards the target, and likely special operators, intelligence officers and human sources working in the shadows on the ground,” he wrote.
The Pentagon’s acting inspector general said Thursday he’s reviewing Hegseth’s use of the Signal messaging app. He will also look at other defense officials' use of the app, which isn’t able to handle classified information and isn’t part of the Department of Defense’s secure communications network.
