Top intel officials shift responsibility on to Hegseth for sending potentially classified info to Yemen strike group chat
CNN
Several of President Donald Trump’s top national security officials, at times with assistance from a top Senate Republican, shifted responsibility to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth for sending potentially classified information that appeared in a group chat about US military strikes in Yemen that a journalist was included in.
Several of President Donald Trump’s top national security officials, at times with assistance from a top Senate Republican, shifted responsibility to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth for sending potentially classified information that appeared in a group chat about US military strikes in Yemen that a journalist was included in. Under sharp questioning from outraged Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard repeatedly denied that the chat contained classified information. “There were no classified or intelligence equities that were included in that chat group at any time,” Gabbard testified under oath. Ratcliffe was similarly adamant in his denials at various points during Tuesday’s hearing. But when pressed on whether the sensitive operational details for the forthcoming strikes against Iran-backed militants that Hegseth reportedly sent to the thread were classified, both top intelligence officials deferred to the defense secretary. “With respect to the assertions and the allegations that there was strike packages or targeting information or things that relate to DOD, as I pointed out, the Secretary of Defense is the original classification authority for determining whether something is classified or not, and as I’ve understood from media reports, the Secretary of Defense has said the information was not classified,” Ratcliffe told lawmakers. Asked if such information should be classified, Gabbard told the committee, “I defer to the Secretary of Defense and the National Security Council on that question.”
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