Signal War Plans Messages Disappear from CIA Director's Phone

Signal messages discussing sensitive U.S. military plans were not on CIA director John Ratcliffe's phone when the CIA reviewed them, the CIA's Chief Data Officer has said.

In a court document submitted Monday as part of a lawsuit between nonpartisan watchdog group American Oversight and White House officials, Hurley V. Blankenship said that when the CIA reviewed a sensitive Signal group chat on March 31, days after news broke that a journalist had been erroneously added to it, "substantive messages" were not present and instead the chat showed only its group name and administrative settings.

Newsweek contacted Ratcliffe for comment via website form outside of normal office hours on Tuesday.

Why It Matters

Administration officials allegedly discussed U.S. military plans in Yemen on a Signal chat group on March 24 that included The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg.

Officials on the chat group faced bipartisan criticism including the lawsuit, which alleged breaches of the Federal Records Act and the Administrative Procedure Act by conducting government business on a platform which erases communications.

Federal Judge James Boasberg, the chief U.S. district judge in Washington, on March 27 ordered Ratcliffe—along with other members of the group chat Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessen and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard—to preserve all messages from March 11 to 15 in the chat group.

What To Know

In a declaration, Blankenship wrote: "I understand that the Director's personal Signal account was reviewed and a screenshot of the Signal Chat at issue was captured from the Director's account on 31 March 2025, and transferred to Agency records systems the same day."

He added that the screenshot "reflects the information available at the time the screenshot was captured" which did "not include substantive messages from the Signal chat."

Instead, it had the group chat name "Houthi PC Small Group, and reflects administrative notifications from 26 March and 28 Match relating to changes in participant's administrative settings in this group chat, such as profile names and message settings."

What People Are Saying

Attorney General Pam Bondi commented on the Signal leak last Thursday, telling reporters: "It was sensitive information, not classified, and inadvertently released. And what we should be talking about is it was a very successful mission. Our world is now safer because of that mission."

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on March 26: "The Atlantic has conceded: these were NOT 'war plans.' This entire story was another hoax written by a Trump-hater who is well-known for his sensationalist spin."

What Happens Next

Trump previously said he asked National Security adviser Michael Waltz to look into potential security issues with Signal.

It remains to be seen whether Congress will open an investigation into the security breach and whether the lawsuit results in any substantive action.