Washington — Sen. Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Wednesday that the panel is seeking an expedited inspector general investigation into the leak of a sensitive Signal group chat about strikes in Yemen that has stunned Washington in recent days.
Earlier this week, Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor of The Atlantic, revealed that he was added to the group on the encrypted messaging app and observed as top Trump officials discussed sensitive plans to strike targets in Yemen. On Wednesday, a day after top administration officials claimed that “no war plans” were discussed, The Atlantic published screenshots of more texts that showed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth provided operational details about the timing of the strikes and the weapons and aircraft that would carry them out.
Speaking to reporters at the Capitol after the most recent release, Wicker detailed the committee’s path forward. He said he and ranking member Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat, would be sending a letter asking the administration to expedite an investigation by the Defense Department’s Office of Inspector General and provide the findings to the committee. The chairman said another letter to the administration would seek “to get ground truth,” and he noted that the committee wants to determine whether the published transcript is accurate.
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Wicker also noted that the information that has been published “appears to me to be of such a sensitive nature that, based on my knowledge, I would have wanted it classified.” Intelligence officials again said in testimony on Wednesday that no information in the chats was classified, an assertion that has been met with intense skepticism from Democrats and former government officials, given the nature of the information that Hegseth disclosed.
The Trump administration fired the inspector general at the Defense Department shortly after President Trump took office, part of a broader purge of internal watchdogs at agencies across the government. The Pentagon’s IG office is currently being overseen on an acting basis by Steven Stebbins, formerly the principal deputy inspector general. Asked whether he had confidence that the Pentagon would comply with his request for an inspector general probe given the vacancy, Wicker said he did.
Wicker said that he and Reed are seeking a classified briefing to the Armed Services Committee “relatively soon” with a senior administration official.
“The chair and the ranking member are working together on a bipartisan basis, as we’ve always tried to do,” Wicker said.
The Mississippi Republican defended the mission at the center of the group chat, saying “the strike on the Houthis was a hugely successful mission, of which I greatly approved.” He said it was “a shame that this security question is distracting the public from — and all of us from — a big success internationally.”
Earlier in the day, Wicker said he did not believe Hegseth should resign. Asked later about any consequences he should face, Wicker said he’s “glad, in this case, no real damage was done.”
“The fact is that the plans for the strike, the timing, the locations, were not revealed to the enemy, and it was a very successful operation,” Wicker said. “If, early on in this administration, there were mistakes, I would hope they can be rectified. … If mistakes were made, I think we’re all human, and they should be acknowledged.”
