Several of President Donald Trump’s senior national security officials, with backing from a key Senate Republican, placed responsibility on Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth for transmitting potentially classified information in a group chat discussing US military strikes in Yemen, which included a journalist as a participant.
During a hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard firmly denied that the messages contained classified material. Under scrutiny from Democratic senators, both officials asserted that no intelligence information requiring classification had been shared in the chat.
“There were no classified or intelligence equities that were included in that chat group at any time,” Gabbard testified. Ratcliffe, echoing this stance, maintained that no sensitive
intelligence information from the CIA or the broader intelligence community was involved.
However, when questioned about whether operational details concerning forthcoming strikes that Hegseth reportedly shared were classified, both officials deferred to the defence secretary, citing his authority to determine classification.
“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 Defence is the original classification authority for determining whether something is classified or not, and as I’ve understood from media reports, the Secretary of Defence has said the information was not classified,” Ratcliffe told lawmakers.
