A prominent Republican in the U.S. Senate on Wednesday called for an independent investigation into Trump administration officials discussing plans for attacks on the Houthis in the Signal messaging app.
Critics have argued that if the information had fallen into the wrong hands, American military personnel could have been at risk.
Senator Roger Wicker from Mississippi, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, stated that he and Senator Jack Reed, the leading Democrat on the committee, would request the Trump administration to expedite the Inspector General’s report and conduct a classified briefing.
“Today, we are signing a letter requesting the administration to speed up the Inspector General’s report to the committee. We are sending a similar letter to the administration in an attempt to obtain truthful information,” Wicker told reporters at the Capitol.
“The recently published information seems so sensitive to me that, based on what I know, I would prefer it to be classified,” Wicker added.
The Inspector General of the Department of Defense, a nonpartisan official responsible for rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse, was one of several officials Trump dismissed at the beginning of his second term in January. No replacement was appointed.
Wicker said that despite this, he is confident that the Pentagon will prepare the Inspector General’s report.
Several of Trump’s Republican allies joined Democrats in expressing concern over the Signal chat incident.
The controversy began this week when Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, published a report claiming that Trump’s national security adviser, Waltz, mistakenly added him to a Signal chat where top administration officials were discussing strikes on Yemen.
