Exclusive: Oversight Dems request interviews with Signal chat members
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Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller in the Oval Office on Feb. 10. Photo: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee sent letters on Tuesday to members of the Trump administration's Houthi air strike Signal group chat, requesting they sit for transcribed interviews about the national security breach.
Why it matters: The White House has remained defiant despite the bipartisan backlash and growing calls from members of both parties to investigate the breach.
Driving the news: Ranking member Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) sent letters to seven non-principal members of the Signal chat as part of Oversight Democrats' push to investigate the incident. Recipients included:
- Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff;
- Alex Wong, deputy to national security adviser Mike Waltz;
- Mike Needham, chief of staff to Secretary of State Marco Rubio;
- Joe Kent, acting chief of staff to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard;
- Walker Barrett, senior director of the National Security Council;
- Dan Katz, chief of staff to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent;
- Brian McCormack, chief of staff to the National Security Council.
What they're saying: "Because you were reportedly one of the participants in the 'Houthi PC small group' chat, we require your participation in a transcribed interview to examine your involvement in this incident and other potentially reckless disclosures of highly sensitive national security information," Connolly wrote in each of the letters.
- Connolly asked Barrett and McCormack to confirm their participation in the interviews by April 7. The other recipients were asked to confirm their participation by April 15.
- Connolly then requested that each recipient appear for their transcribed interview on a different date in April and early May.
The big picture: The group chat was exposed when The Atlantic's editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg was inadvertently added to it. He published two bombshell stories laying out how officials shared classified information about U.S. plans for bombing Houthi targets in Yemen.
- Waltz, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Vice President JD Vance took part in the discussion.
A government watchdog sued members of the president's national security team last week for alleged violations of the Federal Records Act.
- In a twist of fate for President Trump, the case is being overseen by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg — the same judge overseeing challenges to Trump's efforts to deport alleged members of a Venezuelan gang to El Salvador.
- Boasberg has ordered those in the group chat to preserve the messages.
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