Signal App Is Pre-Installed on Government Devices, Gabbard Testifies

Testifying before the Senate, Gabbard noted a 2024 U.S. cybersecurity guidance recommending government officials use encrypted messaging apps like Signal.

(L-R) FBI Director, Kash Patel; Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard; and CIA Director, John Ratcliffe, testify before a House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on March 26, 2025. Drew Angerer/AFP via Getty Images

As Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard faced a second day of questioning regarding a leaked Trump administration text conversation about military strikes in Yemen, she testified that the Signal messaging app used in the chat “comes pre-installed on government devices.”

Lawmakers have raised questions about the Signal app after The Atlantic’s Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg reported that he was inadvertently added to a text conversation among high-level Trump administration officials, in which they discussed U.S. plans to strike targets in Yemen. Throughout his initial March 24 article, Goldberg raised concerns that the top Trump administration officials had discussed sensitive operational details while appearing unaware that he had been looped into the conversation.

The National Security Council has since confirmed that the text conversations Goldberg described appeared to be authentic.

Testifying before the House Intelligence Committee on March 26, Gabbard said the National Security Council is still investigating how Goldberg came to have access to the group chat and how his presence went unnoticed for as long as it did. She reiterated that no classified information was transmitted across this text channel.

Gabbard further indicated the Signal app is a trusted means for government officials to communicate, stating the particular app “comes pre-installed on government devices.”

The intelligence community chief went on to note a December 2024 memo issued by the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which advises “highly targeted individuals” within the government to use end-to-end encrypted messaging applications, such as Signal, for their regular communications.

U.S. cybersecurity officials issued this guidance after discovering the “Salt Typhoon” telecommunications hacks last fall. The breach, which U.S. cybersecurity officials believe was carried out by Chinese state-backed hackers, compromised standard call and text messaging data.

Salt Typhoon and other recent hacking attacks were among the issues Gabbard and other intelligence community officials were scheduled to discuss at Senate and House Intelligence Committee hearings on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively. During both hearings, however, lawmakers repeatedly brought up the Signal chat leak.

In Tuesday’s testimony, Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe—both of whom were on the leaked chat chain—testified that they were unaware of any discussions within the channel about the specific weapons and timing of the renewed U.S. strikes in Yemen.

On Wednesday, The Atlantic published screenshots purporting to show much of the Signal chat exchange. Among the messages, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth appeared to describe receiving a notice that weather conditions for the strikes were favorable. He then appeared to provide a timeline for when F-18 Super Hornet fighter jets, MQ-9 Reaper drones, and sea-based Tomahawk cruise missiles would launch.

Current classification rules published by the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) suggest that Top Secret classifications be applied to any communications that include “military plans, weapons systems, or operations,” “foreign activities of the United States,” or “information detailing damage assessment.”

When asked to justify her Tuesday testimony before the Senate with the new messages released on Wednesday, Gabbard said, “My answer yesterday was based on my recollection, or the lack thereof, on the details that were posted there.

“I did not recall the exact details of what was included there.”

Andrew Thornebrooke contributed to this report.