Fox's Jennifer Griffin: Info Hegseth sent 'classified' and meant only for secure channels

Fox News’s Chief National Security Correspondent Jennifer Griffin said she surveyed current and former defense officials on Wednesday who said Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth shared “classified” information via the Signal group chat with President Trump’s cabinet members and The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, who was mistakenly added to the message thread.

“What Hegseth shared two hours ahead of the strikes were time sensitive ‘attack orders’ or ‘operational plans’ with actual timing of the strikes and mention of F18s, MQ9 Reapers and Tomahawks,” Griffin wrote in a Wednesday post on X.

“This information is typically sent through classified channels to the commanders in the field as ‘secret, no forn’ message. In other words the information is ‘classified’ and should not be shared through insecure channels,” she added. 

Griffin’s discussion with past defense officials revealed that the information shared about the U.S. strike on the Houthis in Yemen could have put American lives at risk.

“‘Attack orders’ or ‘attack sequence’ puts the joint force directly and immediately at risk, according to former senior defense official #1. ‘It allows the enemy to move the target and increase lethal actions against US forces,’” the journalist wrote.

“This kind of real time operational information is more sensitive than ‘war plans,’ which makes this lapse more egregious, according to two former senior US defense officials.”

The Trump administration, including Hegseth and national security adviser Mike Waltz, have both shared multiple statements alleging that the information was not classified.

“No names. No targets. No locations. No units. No routes. No sources. No methods. And no classified information,” Hegseth wrote in a Wednesday post on X.

Griffin’s sources said Hegseth could technically “retroactively” declassify information but highlighted his refusal to call the messages war plans is “pure semantics” and interviewees noted that if the information was given to the wrong person, the Signal chat could have provided a warning about the attack to foreign adversaries.

“‘If you are revealing who is going to be attacked (Houthis – the name of the text chain), it still gives the enemy warning. When you release the time of the attack – all of that is always ‘classified,’” a former senior US defense official told the Fox News reporter.

President Trump said he would ask Hegseth to review what information should be considered classified, while White House officials have tapped Elon Musk to investigate how Goldberg was added to the Signal chat. 

The Trump administration also faces a lawsuit initiated by the group American Oversight. 

Plaintiffs claim officials violated their obligations under the Federal Records Act to preserve information related to national security as the Signal chat settings were set to disappear after a certain number of weeks.

U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg will preside over the case. He’s the same judge who was assigned to President Trump’s Venezuelan deportation case where he blocked the Republican administration from invoking the Alien Enemies Act.