The Atlantic magazine is pushing back at  the Trump Administration’s insistence, both to the press and the  Senate Intelligence committee, that no classified war plans against Houthi rebels were shared on an encrypted Signal group  by publishing transcripts and screenshots of the texts in full early Wednesday.  

“There is a clear public interest in disclosing the sort of information that Trump advisers included in nonsecure communications channels, especially because senior administration figures are attempting to downplay the significance of the messages that were shared,” said Jeffrey Goldberg, the publication’s editor who was added to the Signal chat. The White House says it has no idea how he was added. Mr. Goldberg says he was invited to the chat by the national security adviser, Mike Waltz, who denies ever knowing or interacting with the journalist, who’s known for reporting that’s openly hostile to President Trump.

In the Signal messages, Secretary Hegseth, who maintains that “nobody was texting war plans, ays out in detail, 31 minutes before the March 15th strike commenced, the blow-by-blow of the operation, including the timing of when the operation would launch and which US weapons systems would be deployed.

According to the Atlantic, the chat, which had “Houthi” in the chat name, continued thus:

“At 11:44 a.m. eastern time, Hegseth posted in the chat, in all caps, ‘TEAM UPDATE:”

The text beneath this began, “TIME NOW (1144et): Weather is FAVORABLE. Just CONFIRMED w/CENTCOM we are a GO for mission launch.” Centcom, or Central Command, is the military’s combatant command for the Middle East. The Hegseth text continues:

• “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)”

Mr. Hegseth continued:

• “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”—that is, operational security.
• “Godspeed to our Warriors.”

Hours after the operation was launched, Mr. Waltz, who on Tuesday evening  fell on his sword by taking “full responsibility” for including Mr. Goldberg in a group chat that he himself “built” (though he said he didn’t know him) posted a detailed intelligence update about one target site in Yemen.

“The first target – their top missile guy – we had positive ID of him walking into his girlfriend’s building, and it’s now collapsed,” Mr. Waltz posted, according to the Atlantic. 

The CIA director, John Ratcliffe, who yesterday told the Senate Intelligence Committee that could not “recall” any specific mentions of weapons systems in the group chat, responded 35-minutes later to Mr. Waltz’s update, writing “A good start,” according to the Atlantic.

Addressing White House reporters today, White House Advisor Alina Habba called the story “a distraction” and “frankly just noise.”

Mr. Goldberg, whom Mr. Trump called a“total sleazebag” Tuesday, said the Signal chat, which he described as a security breach, made the American military vulnerable.

“Had it been read by an adversary, you can use your imagination where that could go,” Mr. Goldberg said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program on Wednesday morning.