WASHINGTON (U.S.) (ITALPRESS) – Republican Senator John Cornyn, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, called for further investigation into the Signal chat between senior administration officials about U.S. plans to attack Houthi rebels in Yemen.
According to CNN reports, however, Cornyn declined to say whether he believes classified information was discussed in the chain of messages. “I just think there will be, there must be, further investigation into the facts and circumstances,” he said. The messages came to light after a reporter from The Atlantic was accidentally added to the group. The Senate Intelligence Committee held a hearing on what happened this morning. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe were among those who testified.
“I think it might come as a surprise to some people that the intelligence community uses commercial encrypted apps to communicate outside of classified systems. And then there is the issue of government records. Generally, there is a retention requirement and some other requirements, including Freedom of Information Foundation investigations of public records. So I think we will simply have to get to the bottom of this issue,” Cornyn said.
Meanwhile, the committee’s vice chairman, Democratic Senator Mark Warner, sharply criticized the intelligence officials who testified for failing to recognize the seriousness of the incident and said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth should resign. “We didn’t even receive an apology. We didn’t even receive an acknowledgement. If the Houthis had received this information, they could have repositioned their defenses and American lives could have been and probably would have been lost,” Warner said.
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