The White House spokeswoman said Wednesday that the billionaire Elon Musk and his team at the Department of Government Effectiveness will help the White House and the National Security Council investigate the addition of a reporter to a group conversation on the Signal app with national security officials, according to the newspaper. The Independent.
After the shocking revelation of the addition of the magazine's editor-in-chief The Atlantic to a group including cabinet members about a U.S. military operation in Yemen, lawmakers and the public demanded investigations to understand how the incident could have occurred.
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said the National Security Council, the White House counsel's office, and Musk's team at the Department of Government Effectiveness will respond to these requests.
Speaking to reporters, Leavitt confirmed that participants in the investigation included "the National Security Council, the White House Counsel's office, as well as Elon Musk's team." She added, "Elon Musk has offered to mobilize his technical experts to determine how this number may have been accidentally added to the conversation, to prevent this from happening again."
National Security Adviser Mike Waltz took responsibility for the error, telling reporters Tuesday that he had inadvertently added journalist Jeffrey Goldberg to the group chat. However, Waltz struggled to explain how Goldberg ended up on his contact list, saying he didn't know him and didn't exchange messages with him.
Le président américain Donald Trump suggested that Goldberg could have added himself, suggesting that this technology allows anyone "to access this kind of stuff."
While an internal investigation appears underway, five Cabinet members involved in the Signal conversation—Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe—are facing federal legal action.
The complaint, filed by the non-profit organization American Oversight, is asking the judge to order the preservation of messages exchanged on Signal, arguing that the use of this application – although encrypted, but commercially available – violates federal law.
Although the magazine The Atlantic Although the White House described the messages between officials as "war plans" containing sensitive information, it insists that no classified information was exchanged.
