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| Lisa Murkowski (AP) |
Republicans in the U.S. Senate are seeking investigations of the Signalgate leak case currently embroiling the Trump administration, with one senator saying the problem is "not going away anytime soon," according to a report at The Hill. Under the headline "GOP lawmakers press for investigations of Trump Cabinet group chat," Alexander Bolton writes:
Republican senators are calling for the Trump administration and congressional committees to investigate the disclosure of sensitive national security information over Signal, a commercial app, fearing the controversy could have major political consequences.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) said Tuesday that his committee will investigate the matter but also called on the inspector general (IG) for the Department of Defense (DOD) to launch a probe.
Wicker's idea might not fly. That's because Robert Storch, of the DOD, was among the IGs Donald Trump fired in January of this year. Steven Stebbins is serving as acting inspector general, which likely means a Trump loyalist would be tasked with investigating Signalgate. What are the chances of a legitimate probe under such circumstances? "Zero" probably is the answer.
Still, it's intriguing to hear Republicans at least act like they are serious about holding Team Trump accountable. Bolton writes:
“We’ll certainly be asking the IG to look into it,” Wicker told The Hill of the incident, which has sparked concerns among Republicans and Democrats over the frequency with which senior Trump officials are using Signal to hold sensitive conversations.
Senators say the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is chaired by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), will also investigate the security lapse, according to senators on the panel.
The topic was discussed extensively when five senior officials, including Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, testified before the Intelligence Committee on Tuesday.
Gabbard and Ratcliffe were part of the chat group on Signal put together by national security adviser Mike Waltz that also included Vice President Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. The group discussed the operational details of a pending military strike against Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Waltz reportedly added journalist Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in chief of The Atlantic, to the group by mistake, and the error was compounded when Hegseth texted detailed information about the planned strikes to the group before they took place.
Some Republicans have expressed concern that the issue could blow up in the party's face if not handled deftly. Another suggested the massive security failure suggests members of the Trump team do not know what they are doing. Bolton reports:
One Republican senator who requested anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter said many Republican colleagues are concerned the security lapse could become a significant political problem if not addressed in a credible way.
“It’s not going away anytime soon. There’s a lot of questions they need to answer, and a lot of questions we need to ask,” the GOP lawmaker said.
The source said that “hopefully” the administration would investigate the security lapse thoroughly, but added that the Armed Services and Intelligence panels will conduct their own investigations.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said if senior officials in the Biden administration had made a similar mistake, Republicans in Congress would be blowing their tops.
"Inadvertently looping a journalist into a text chain discussing military planning was “really bad,” Murkowski added. “This is what happens when you don’t have your act together.”
Asked whether Republicans should hold hearings, Murkowski said: “Think about what we'd do if Biden were president and this came out. … We would raise the roof.”
“Seems to me it’s in everybody’s best interest to know that when you have these conversations, even if they’re very thoughtful engagement amongst leaders, that you have them in a secured environment,” she said.
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