The White House internal investigation figured out how the Atlantic editor, Jeffrey Goldberg, was added to the phone call on Signal Chat, where several of Trump’s top officials discussed the offensive against the Houthis.
The Guardian has the story.
Donald Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz included a journalist in the Signal group chat about plans for US strikes in Yemen after he mistakenly saved his number months before under the contact of someone else he intended to add, according to three people briefed on the matter.
The Details
It began during the 2024 campaign and went unnoticed until Waltz created the group chat last month.
The Guardian reported that Waltz’s phone had saved Goldberg’s number as part of an unlikely series of events that started when Goldberg emailed the Trump campaign last October.
According to three people briefed on the internal investigation, Goldberg had emailed the campaign about a story that criticized Trump for his attitude towards wounded service members. To counter the story, the campaign enlisted the help of Waltz, their national security surrogate.
Goldberg’s email was forwarded to then-Trump spokesperson Brian Hughes, who copied and pasted the content of the email—including the signature block with Goldberg’s phone number—into a text message that he sent to Waltz so that he could be briefed on the forthcoming story, the Guardian says.
Waltz never called Goldberg but accidentally saved the number under the contact card for Hughes, who is not the spokesperson for the National Security Council.
According to the White House, the number was erroneously saved during a “contact suggestion update” by Waltz’s iPhone, which one person described as the function where an iPhone algorithm adds a previously unknown number to an existing contact that it detects may be related.
The mistake went unnoticed until last month when Waltz sought to add Hughes to the Signal group chat – but ended up adding Goldberg’s number to the 13 March message chain named “Houthi PC small group”, where several top US officials discussed plans for strikes against the Houthis.
The Concern
One concern is whether Waltz and Goldberg have a relationship. Waltz said he hadn’t ever spoken with Goldberg and didn’t know him, while Goldberg said he has talked to Waltz and knows him. Someone produced a photo of Goldberg and Waltz smiling in the same picture. That doesn’t mean Waltz remembered or has a relationship with Goldberg. Goldberg’s a proven liar.
It’s hard to imagine Waltz having a relationship with that reporter of all reporters, but it gives one pause.
Goldberg shares responsibility for the leak. If you found yourself on an alleged top-secret call, wouldn’t you tell them and then get off – fast? It’s brazen and somewhat corrupt. Who would want any part of that? Goldberg stayed on long enough to get his “scoop,” which he grossly exaggerated.
The White House officials temporarily used Signal Chat to speak in real time; they could not use any other app to do it—it doesn’t exist.
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