Senate Democrats: Pete Hegseth's Signal Chat Might be Criminal Violation of Espionage Act

The Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee called for the immediate resignation of Pete Hegseth and Senate Democrats said the Signal chat may be a criminal violation.

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These responses from Democrats could be said to evince the differences in the party between the House and Senate, with House Democrats much more unified against the Trump attacks on institutions and freedoms than the Senate.

But Dems in both chambers are horrified by the national security implications of Trump’s Cabinet sharing military secrets on a Signal chat in which they had “inadvertently” added the Atlantic’s Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg and the dangers it posed to our servicemembers.

Meeks: Hegseth Lied to the American Public

Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Rep. Gregory Meeks called for the immediate resignation of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, noting in a statement sent to The Daily that he had lied, “It is now undeniable that Secretary Hegseth not only shared classified U.S. war plans over Signal, but also lied about it to the American public.”

“It is now undeniable that Secretary Hegseth not only shared classified U.S. war plans over Signal, but also lied about it to the American public. This gross incompetence puts American servicemembers in jeopardy and risked having our adversaries intercept a potential roadmap of U.S. strategic planning.

“The most stunning aspect of this debacle is that a journalist—mistakenly included in the chat—showed more care with sensitive U.S. military plans than the Trump administration officials entrusted to protect them. The Atlantic responsibly withheld the exchange from publication until the Trump administration issued multiple false denials, exposing not just negligence but an active cover-up. Rather than acknowledge the gravity of the breach, the administration has deflected, dismissed, and attempted to bury its own reckless conduct.

“Pete Hegseth must resign immediately. If his lack of qualifications for this role wasn’t already evident, this latest scandal confirms he is dangerously unfit for the job. But Hegseth is far from the only incompetent risk factor in this administration. Trump himself has shown extreme disregard for handling classified materials, as evidenced by the stashing of classified documents in a bathroom at Mar-a-Lago. Now his top national security officials are casually discussing military strikes in a group chat, and their dismissal of the severity of these communications leads me to believe the use of Signal was not a one-off.

“This isn’t just irresponsible, it’s a direct threat to our troops, allies, and global standing. Republicans who hold the gavels in Congress, and relevant federal watchdog agencies, must launch credible investigations into the nature of the Trump administration’s mishandling of classified information and violations of the Federal Records Act. The American people deserve to know whether Trump officials are hiding official communication in private channels without archiving it as the law requires.”

Meeks is correct. Our allies in Europe found the Trump Cabinet’s “disdain” for our Europe “horrific” to see in black and white, the BBC reported. “But hardly surprising," is how a top European diplomat reacted to what comes across as deep, heartfelt disdain for European allies, revealed late on Monday, European time, in an online group chat between top US security officials.”

This isn’t a mere matter of policy disagreement and it’s also even worse than Trump’s realigning of global power to side with countries hostile to the USA and/or at least not allies, because this is also a matter of such stunning incompetence that it’s become clear our national security is imperiled.

Of course, this was expected given Trump’s appointees, many of whom have no qualifications for the roles other than their obsequiousness to Himself and their willingness to align with Russia over the US and apparently their deep hatred for our European allies.

Who else hates Europe? Oh, that’s right. Trump’s bestie Vlad Putin, according to his own handpicked Ukraine and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, who just so happened to be IN MOSCOW when he was added to this Signal chat.

Trump enablers never seem to account for the fact that Putin hates Europe because he sees it as under the control of the United States. What does this say about how Putin views the US and therefore how Trump views the US? Donald Trump’s envoy thinks Putin sees Trump as a good friend, but does he? Putin hates the US. Putin has the US president under his wing. With “friends” like Putin, who needs enemies.

This is clearly not good. It also should once again raise questions about Trump’s loyalty. Is he loyal to the US over his own interests?