5 things to know about the Signal chat leak controversy
4. The Atlantic publishes chat
After Trump and multiple administration officials said there were no sensitive national security issues mentioned in the chat, The Atlantic published excerpts from the chat on Wednesday.
One comment that the news outlet censored was the mention of the name of a Central Intelligence Agency official shared by CIA Director John Ratcliffe.
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According to an annotation of the released Signal chat excerpts by the New York Times, one message sent by Hegseth on March 15 "included very specific details of the timing of the launches from carriers of the planes that were to strike Houthi targets."
"Launch times are closely guarded pieces of information to ensure that the targets cannot move into hiding or mount a counterattack at the very moment planes are taking off and are potentially vulnerable," wrote Times reporter Julian E. Barnes.
