Timeline shows when Trump official added journalist to Yemen attack group chat

In an extraordinary national security breach, secret U.S. war plans against the terrorist Houthi militia in Yemen were shared by senior officials in a group chat on a commercial messaging app that accidentally included a journalist, according to The Atlantic, which published a follow-up story with attack plan details on Wednesday.

The Atlantic said it decided to publish the plans after President Donald Trump and other top officials said no classified information was shared in the group chat. "It wasn't classified information," Trump said Tuesday.

Closer look: What attack plan included.

“Nobody was texting war plans. And that’s all I have to say about that,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters on Monday.

Both Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, and John Ratcliffe, CIA director, told a Senate Intelligence Committee Tuesday that nothing classified or at risk of endangering national security was included in the messaging thread. 

"The statements by Hegseth, Gabbard, Ratcliffe, and Trump – combined with the assertions made by numerous administration officials that we are lying about the content of the Signal texts – have led us to believe that people should see the texts in order to reach their own conclusions," the Atlantic said in Wednesday's story.

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The Atlantic said contacted the CIA, DNI, NSC, Defense Department, and the White House to ask if they objected to publication of full text exchanges.

The CIA asked that the name of a CIA officer be withheld. The White House objected to the release, without addressing "which elements of the texts the White House considered sensitive," the Atlantic said.

Other departments did not respond.

The attack plan details included times of fighter plane and drone launches, and estimated times of bomb drops and Tomahawk missile launches.

How was a journalist added to a confidential chat?

How it happened is still unknown.

Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief at The Atlantic, was somehow added to the chat, identified as the “Houthi PC small group,” on March 13, according to his story published Monday. He was part of the group for four days.

Goldberg reported that Hegseth used Signal, an encrypted messaging app, to text detailed information about upcoming military strikes to more than a dozen White House and intelligence officials. The texts were sent about two hours before the attacks were launched March 15.

The encrypted app is open-source and is not approved for sharing classified information.

The group chat was confirmed by Brian Hughes, a spokesperson for the White House national security council, which is investigating. Goldberg's inclusion in the chat was “inadvertent,” Hughes said.

Though some White House officials were part of the chat, Trump was not.

What was said during the confidential group chat?

Tuesday, March 11

Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg receives a connection request on Signal – a nonprofit encrypted commercial text messaging service – from a user identified as Michael Waltz.

"It immediately crossed my mind that someone could be masquerading as Waltz in order to somehow entrap me," Goldberg wrote. "I accepted the connection request, hoping that this was the actual national security adviser, and that he wanted to chat about Ukraine, or Iran, or some other important matter."

Michael Waltz is the national security adviser. Goldberg, who has met Waltz, accepts the request. He says he appears as "JG" in the chat.

Thursday, March 13

At 4:28 p.m., Goldberg receives a text notice that he will be included in a Signal chat group called the “Houthi PC small group.”

The Atlantic reports: "A message to the group, from “Michael Waltz,” read as follows: “Team – establishing a principles [sic] group for coordination on Houthis, particularly for over the next 72 hours." Chat members are asked to nominate staffers to represent senior national security officials.

Chat members begin naming staffers. Eighteen people are listed as members of the chat.

Friday, March 14

At 8:05 a.m., the group begins policy discussions on how to proceed. A number of high-ranking officials, apparently including Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and "presumably President Trump’s confidant Stephen Miller, the deputy White House chief of staff," offer opinions.

Saturday, March 15

At 11:44 a.m., Hegseth texts an update with "operational details of forthcoming strikes on Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing," The Atlantic reports.

The post says the first explosions in Yemen will begin at 1:45 p.m. Eastern time. Other information on the strikes is texted to the group, which Goldberg does not reveal in his story.

At 1:55 p.m., Goldberg checks social media and finds news of the strikes. He checks the group chat and finds congratulatory notes from members starting at 1:48 p.m.

Goldberg realized the chat was legitimate when the strikes hit Yemen at the time Hegseth indicated they would.

Sunday, March 16

Waltz talks about the strikes in an appearance on ABC’s "This Week." Goldberg removes himself from the chat, knowing Waltz will be automatically notified of his leaving.

"No one in the chat had seemed to notice that I was there. And I received no subsequent questions about why I left − or, more to the point, who I was," Goldberg later writes.

Goldberg later contacts Waltz and other members, asking what happened.

Brian Hughes, a National Security Council spokesman, later tells Goldberg the chat was real. “This appears to be an authentic message chain, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain,” Hughes says.

What officials were part of the confidential chat?

The chat group included at least 18 users, with many names matching Trump's top officials, according to Paste BN, The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal:

• Mike Waltz, national security adviser
• Pete Hegseth, secretary of defense
• JD Vance, vice president
• Marco Rubio, secretary of state
• John Ratcliffe, CIA director
• Tulsi Gabbard, director of national intelligence
• Susie Wiles, White House chief of staff
• Brian McCormack, National Security Council member
• Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s Middle East and Ukraine negotiator
• Scott Bessent, treasury secretary
• Stephen Miller, Homeland Security adviser and deputy chief of staff
• Joe Kent, National Counter Terrorism Center
• Dan Katz, Treasury Department chief of staff
• Dan Caldwell, Department of Defense
• Andy Baker, representative from the Office of the Vice President
• Unidentified U.S. intelligence officer

The Atlantic story says some of the participants were identified only by initials. Others were identified by full names, but it's not fully certain if the actual named person was texting.

What is the Signal messaging service?

Signal is available to anyone in the Apple and Android app stores. It's not approved by the federal government for classified communications.

The Defense Department has rated Signal an "unmanaged" messaging app, which means it is not authorized to access or transmit nonpublic defense information, according to The Washington Post.

Its use by Trump national security officials leaves an opening that U.S. adversaries like China, Iran and Russia could exploit, national security experts say.

CONTRIBUTING Cybele Mayes-Osterman, Josh Meyer, Tom Vanden Brook and Riley Beggin

SOURCE Paste BN Network reporting and research; The Atlantic; Reuters

This story was updated to include additional information.