Senior Trump administration officials continued using Signal, a private messaging app, after last year’s embarrassing leak when a reporter was added to a group chat discussing sensitive military operations, according to a new report.
Last March, The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, reported that he had been inadvertently added to a Signal chat with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance, where they detailed U.S. airstrikes in Yemen. The incident sparked outrage, with critics calling it an example of “gross negligence” and saying the chat — which reportedly included self-deleting messages — likely violated records-preservation laws.
In the aftermath, Trump called for a change. “I think we learned: Maybe don’t use Signal, okay,” he told Goldberg in April. “If you want to know the truth. I would frankly tell these people not to use Signal.”
But newly released records, obtained by the group Democracy Forward under the Freedom of Information Act, reveal the existence of 13 previously unreported Signal chats from the first half of 2025, some of which were used by senior officials after the leak, The Atlantic reported Monday.
Less than two weeks after Trump urged officials to avoid Signal, Mauricio Claver-Carone, then special envoy for Latin America, was messaging with Rubio on the encrypted app.
The records, posted online by Democracy Forward, include chat screenshots identifying numerous Trump administration officials. Some group names include “Iran/Ukraine Planning” and “State USAID.”
One screenshot shows a chat with Rubio, Hegseth and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Dan Caine, where messages were set to be wiped after eight hours. A separate chat with over a dozen members — including Vance, Hegseth and Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick — had messages set to automatically delete after one week.
Administration officials have downplayed the existence of these chats.
“As we have said, Signal is an approved app that is pre-loaded on government phones,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told The Independent. “Senior officials always responsibly handle classified information, unlike reporters at The Atlantic, who regularly ask people to leak classified information, which is a felony, for publication.”
“This is old news,” she added.
A representative for Caine, the highest-ranking military officer in the U.S., told The Atlantic that he “uses the Signal app for administrative and coordinating matters within the parameters of DoD Instructions.” The spokesperson added that Caine doesn’t share classified information on the app.
The Independent has contacted the State Department and Defense Department for comment.
The administration’s handling of Signal messages has been the focus of ongoing litigation.
Last summer, a federal judge ordered the secretary of state to try to attempt to recover any records that could have been deleted. During the proceedings, administration attorneys would not say that all Signal records had been preserved, leading U.S. District Judge James Boasberg to conclude that improper deletions could likely be proven at trial.
Afterward, administration officials told the court they had downloaded new software on government phones to help ensure records were preserved.
Last year’s leaked chats, dubbed “Signalgate,” sent shockwaves through Washington, D.C., drawing criticism from Democrats and Republicans.
According to The Atlantic, Goldberg received messages on March 15 that included a detailed timeline of U.S. strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen, which were scheduled for later that day. One message written by Hegseth said: “Target Terrorist is @ his Known Location so SHOULD BE ON TIME.”
The defense secretary shared the plan roughly two hours before the bombs were dropped. The strikes killed 53 people, including children.
Then-National Security Adviser Mike Walz took responsibility for creating the chat, describing the episode as “embarrassing.” He also called Goldberg a “loser” who may have “deliberately” tricked someone in the administration into getting access to the chat.
Trump removed Walz from the post in May and later nominated him to serve as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
