WASHINGTON — The Atlantic on Wednesday released the entire Signal chat among senior national security officials, showing that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth provided the exact timings of warplane launches and when bombs would drop — before the men and women flying those attacks against Yemen's Houthis this month on behalf of the United States were airborne.

The disclosure follows two intense days during which leaders of President Donald Trump's intelligence and defense agencies have struggled to explain how details that current and former U.S. officials have said would have been classified wound up on an unclassified Signal chat that included Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has said no classified information was posted to the Signal chat, a stance she reiterated at Wednesday’s press briefing. Leavitt told reporters that the president has seen the full messages shared in the Signal chat and stressed that he “continues to have confidence in his national security team.” 

Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he and Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, the committee's top Democrat, plan to send a letter to the Trump administration requesting an inspector general investigation into the use of Signal. They also want a classified briefing with a top administration official "who can speak to the facts" of the episode.

Top military official was not included in the chat

The chat was also notable for who it excluded: the only military attendee of the principals committee, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Adm. Christopher Grady is currently serving in that position in an acting capacity because Trump fired former chairman Gen. CQ Brown Jr. in February.

National security adviser Mike Waltz was authorized to decide whether to include the Joint Chiefs chairman in the principals committee discussion, "based on the policy relevance of attendees to the issues being considered, the need for secrecy on sensitive matters, staffing needs, and other considerations," the White House said in a Jan. 20 memo.

The Pentagon said it would not comment on the issue, and it was not immediately clear why Grady, currently serving as the president's top military adviser, would not be included in a discussion on military strikes.

Hegseth has refused to say whether he posted classified information onto Signal. He is traveling in the Indo-Pacific and to date has only scoffed at questions, saying he did not reveal "war plans." Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe told members of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday that it was up to Hegseth to determine whether the information he was posting was classified or not.

Asked how she would characterize the contents of the chat, Leavitt called it a “a sensitive policy discussion, surely, amongst high level Cabinet officials and senior staff.” 

Very specific texts were revealed

What was revealed was jaw-dropping in its specificity and includes the type of information that is kept to a very close hold to protect the operational security of a military strike. But Hegseth's spokesman, Sean Parnell, said in a statement Wednesday that "there were no classified materials or war plans shared. The Secretary was merely updating the group on a plan that was underway."

In the group chat, Hegseth posted multiple details about the impending strike, using military language and laying out when a "strike window" starts, where a "target terrorist" was located, the time elements around the attack and when various weapons and aircraft would be used in the strike. He mentioned that the U.S. was "currently clean" on operational security."

"Godspeed to our Warriors," he wrote.

"1215et: F-18s LAUNCH (1st strike package)"

"1345: 'Trigger Based' F-18 1st Strike Window Starts (Target Terrorist is @ his Known Location so SHOULD BE ON TIME – also, Strike Drones Launch (MQ-9s)"

"1410: More F-18s LAUNCH (2nd strike package)"

"1415: Strike Drones on Target (THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP, pending earlier 'Trigger Based' targets)"

"1536 F-18 2nd Strike Starts – also, first sea-based Tomahawks launched."

"MORE TO FOLLOW (per timeline)"

"We are currently clean on OPSEC" — that is, operational security.

"Godspeed to our Warriors."

Goldberg has said he asked the White House if it opposed publication and that the White House responded that it would prefer he did not publish.

Waltz responds

In a post on X after The Atlantic published the transcript, national security adviser Mike Waltz wrote: "No locations. No sources & methods. NO WAR PLANS. Foreign partners had already been notified that strikes were imminent. BOTTOM LINE: President Trump is protecting America and our interests."

Waltz said Tuesday he was not sure how Goldberg ended up on the chat. The transcript shows Waltz's account added Goldberg to the group.

"This one in particular, I’ve never met, don’t know, never communicated with,” Waltz said.

Later Tuesday, Waltz said in an appearance on Fox News Channel's “The Ingraham Angle” that he built the message chain and that White House technical experts were trying to figure out how Goldberg's contact “may have been sucked in.”

“We made a mistake. We’re moving forward," said Waltz, who added that he took “full responsibility” for the episode.

Leavitt said that Trump advisor Elon Musk, who is heading up the administration’s government downsizing effort and often refers to himself as “humble tech support” for the White House, has offered to assist with any probe. 

“Elon Musk has offered to put his technical experts on this to figure out how this number was inadvertently added to the chat,” the press secretary said.

Trump, for his part, continued to attack The Atlantic and Goldberg and sent mixed messages on whether the administration would change how it goes about sharing sensitive information going forward.

“We won’t be using it very much” in the future, Trump said of Signal. "That’s one of the prices you pay when you’re not sitting in the Situation Room with no phones on, which is always the best, frankly."

Speaking in Jamaica, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was another official seemingly on the thread, said “someone made a big mistake” in adding the journalist to the chat. He added that there will be “reforms and changes” to ensure this never happens again. 

Signal is encrypted but can be vulnerable

Signal is a publicly available app that provides encrypted communications, but it can be hacked. It is not approved for carrying classified information. On March 14, one day before the strikes, the Defense Department cautioned personnel about the vulnerability of Signal, specifically that Russia was attempting to hack the app, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

One known vulnerability is that a malicious actor, with access to a person's phone, can link his or her device to the user's Signal and essentially monitor messages remotely in real time.

Leavitt is one of three Trump administration officials who face a lawsuit from The Associated Press on First and Fifth Amendment grounds. The AP says the three are punishing the news agency for editorial decisions they oppose. The White House says the AP is not following an executive order to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.