As his administration struggles to stop the fallout, US President Donald Trump downplayed a recent Signal chat leak as a “witch hunt” and claimed the encrypted messaging app “could be defective” without providing any supporting evidence.
Trump responded to a reporter’s question on Wednesday, asking if his administration should take more responsibility for the chat leak. “The press has] overplayed it,” he said. It’s a witch hunt, in my opinion. I didn’t participate in it at all. I was not there, ” “
A journalist from The Atlantic magazine was unintentionally a part of a top-secret discussion about a looming Houthis attack, according to the Trump administration’s confirmation on Monday.
Some Republican senators are now calling for an investigation into the scandal in response to the House Democrats’ widespread criticism, raising concerns about the political repercussions if the issue is not properly addressed.
Senators Roger Wicker and Jack Reed, the top Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee, have announced that they will request an inspector general investigation into the use of the Signal messaging app.
Additionally, they want a top administration official to give a classified briefing, Wicker said, who “actually has the facts and is able to speak on behalf of the administration.”
According to his assertion, “the information, as it has recently been made, appears to be of such a sensitive nature that, based on my knowledge, I would have wanted it classified,” he continued.
Trump responded, “It doesn’t bother me, I don’t want an inspector general probe.”
Republicans criticized Hillary Clinton, who served as secretary of state under President Barack Obama, for communicating via a private email server in 2014.
Clinton is accused of undermining national security, which became one of the most important topics in the 2016 presidential election. Trump defeated her.
Making a compulsive error
Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, described the shocking realization that he had been included in a group discussion about plans to launch military strikes on Yemen in an article published on Monday.
Democrats questioned whether the information shared through Signal was credible given that it contained sensitive US military information about Yemen’s Houthis, which the White House claimed was not classified.
Senator Mark Warner, the leading Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, used the word “baloney” to describe the position the Trump administration is staking out.
Trump, who has defended his national security team and has attacked the reporter’s credibility, has no indication that the controversy will soon end.
Source: Aljazeera
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