Of inquiry requesting the President and directing the Secretary of State to transmit to the House of Representatives any record created on or after January 20, 2025, under the control of the President or the Secretary, respectively, relating to strikes on the Houthis in Yemen and the disclosure of confidential information to a journalist on the Signal application.
This is a House resolution of inquiry that asks the President to provide, and directs the Secretary of State to provide, to the House of Representatives within 14 days after adoption, copies of all records created on or after January 20, 2025 that are under the control of the President or the Secretary and relate to strikes on the Houthis in Yemen and to the disclosure of confidential information to a journalist via the Signal messaging app. The requested materials cover a broad array of communications and materials (including chats, meeting notes, audio, emails, and even AI-generated transcripts) and focus on topics such as war planning, legal justifications, coordination with allies, and the involvement of journalist Jeffrey Goldberg in a private Signal group chat. The measure is an oversight tool, not a statute, and is intended to increase transparency about how such strikes were planned and discussed, including the ethics and consequences of involving a journalist in confidential war-planning communications.
Key Points
- 1The President is requested, and the Secretary of State is directed, to transmit to the House within 14 days all records created on or after January 20, 2025 that refer or relate to: strikes on the Houthis in Yemen and the disclosure of confidential information to a journalist via Signal.
- 2The records to be transmitted include a wide range of materials: documents, Signal chats, charts, tables, meeting notes, audio recordings, telephone and email records, correspondence, AI large language model transcripts, and any other communications.
- 3The request specifically seeks the full transcript of the Signal group chat that included journalist Jeffrey Goldberg and related to highly sensitive and confidential plans to strike the Houthis, including messages before and after Goldberg’s participation in the chat.
- 4The resolution covers information about strikes on the Houthis, coordination with partners/allies, and legal justifications for such strikes, as well as material connected to Goldberg leaving the chat and publishing an article about his involvement, including any potential consequences for officials who used a commercial app to coordinate war plans.
- 5It also asks for any new executive branch process reforms, safeguards, or protections implemented in response to the involvement of a journalist in such confidential discussions, and any group chats or transcripts used to develop war plans or discuss sensitive national security information.