CIA Director John Ratcliffe maintained in a heated exchange before a Senate panel that his participation in a Signal group chat, which discussed attacking the Houthis, was above the books and completely legal.
“It is permissible to use to communicate and coordinate for work purposes provided, provided, senator, that any decisions made are also recorded through formal channels,” Ratcliffe testified on Capitol Hill on Tuesday morning. “My communications, to be clear, in a single message group were entirely permissible and lawful and did not include classified information.”
The CIA chief and other top national security officials showed down with the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Tuesday. Democrats grilled the Trump administration officials over their involvement in the secret group chat in which members discussed moving forward with a plan to attack the Yemen-based Houthis.
Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), the top Democrat on the panel, asked Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard to confirm their participation in the group chat.
Gabbard refused to acknowledge herself as “TG” in the group chat but maintained that no classified information was shared there.
Ratcliffe broke with Gabbard and admitted that he was the “John Ratcliffe” in the group chat but insisted that the government loaded the encrypted messaging app onto his work device and permitted him to use it to communicate with colleagues.
“One of the first things that happened when I was confirmed as CIA director was Signal was loaded onto my computer at the CIA, as it is for most CIA officers,” said Ratcliffe. “One of the things that I was briefed on very early, senator, was by the CIA records management folks about the use of Signal as a permissible work use. It is. That is a practice that preceded the current administration to the Biden administration.”
Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) attacked Ratcliffe for using the app in such a casual, everyday manner.
“This is just a normal day at the CIA, where we chat about this kind of stuff over Signal. In fact, it’s so normal that the last administration left it here for us. That’s your testimony,” Bennet said.
“That’s your testimony,” Ratcliffe responded. “I didn’t say any of those things.”
The Trump administration came under fire Monday after the Atlantic exposed that one of its journalists was mistakenly added to a Signal group chat with top defense and national security officials as they discussed an attack against the Houthis.
Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of the outlet, wrote in a story Monday that he was added to the group chat “Houthi PC small group” and was accidentally tipped off to strikes in Yemen two hours before the U.S. military operation occurred.
The officials in the group chat shared whether they believed Trump should support an operational attack against the Houthis. Trump ultimately favored moving forward, which the officials in the group chat celebrated after the attack occurred.
The incident triggered fury from Democrats, who said the Trump administration had no respect for protecting classified information by choosing to discuss a top secret strategy on a tech app, which is not allowed.
“Make no mistake, these actions make America less safe,” Warner said.
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Other senior administration officials in the group chat included Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, national security adviser Mike Waltz, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, among others.
Gabbard and Ratcliffe will have to testify again Wednesday before the House Intelligence Committee.