A journalist at Trump’s signal chat chat is talking to BBC

When Jeffrey Goldberg posted the story of Bombshell, which outlined how some of the most high -ranking US officials mistakenly shared with him sensitive information, he received the largest scoop in the year. The Atlantic editor has also been the main goal for every high -ranking Trump administration official in Washington.

In the last couple of days, President Trump was called “loser” and “Sleazebag”, as well as a liar and a “mad” US national security advisor Michael Waltz, who seemed mistaken Goldberg to group chat earlier this month.

Before he became a political lightning rod, Goldberg watched his phone as officials of the US Secretary of State, Mark Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegset, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Director Tuls Gabarda – discussed sensitive details. They seem to have not noticed his presence.

In an interview with BBC on Wednesday, he told me that it all started when he received a message on his phone through a public messaging app that allows users to send each other encrypted messages. It is popular with journalists and government officials. The account under the name of Waltz told him that he believed, there was a hoax.

“I want to be the quality of Le Carré here, you know,” he said, citing the deceased British spy prose writer. “But he asked me to talk. I said” yes. “And the next I know, I was in this very strange chat with the US National Security Guide.”

As the episode of the waltz, the episode of the waltz has taken responsibility for the erroneous addition of Goldberg to the group chat, believing that it intends to invite someone else.

He insisted that he had never met with the editor, saying, “I wouldn’t know him if I came across him if he saw him in a police station.”

According to Goldberg, they actually met several times, although they refused the details of their relationship.

“He can say that, obviously, anything, but I do not comment on my relationship or relationship,” Goldberg told me. “As a reporter, I’m not comfortable talking about the relationship that I can, and may not have people who are news manufacturers.”

However, one thing is clear: you should already have someone’s contact information to get to them by signal, and so waltz had Goldberg’s phone number. The best security advisor said he asked Elon Musk, a billionaire and a White House government government to investigate how a mistake was made – a step that ridiculed Goldberg.

“Indeed, you are going to put Elon Musk when asked how someone’s phone number gets into someone’s phone? I mean that most 8-year-old children can understand it,” he said.

More question? “Do you, as national security officials, do it on your phone?” said Goldberg.

On Monday, the Atlantic narrative – the first to report on their access to the chat – Goldberg deprived the exact details that shared around the bombing mission that attacked Huti rebels in Yemen on March 14. But Trump administration officials downgraded the report, calling it a liar and challenging his claims that general information was disseminated.

And so two days later, the magazine published full text messages, including several Hegseth, which included prompt specificity. I asked him if it was a difficult decision to make.

“After Donald Trump said there was nothing here, and when Tolsey Gabard and John Ratcliffe stated that there was no confidential information, no classified information and so on – we felt that we did not agree,” he said. “They talk about it, and we are those who have texts, so maybe people need to see them.”

In group chat there are text messages -sent before the first wave of strikes -in detail when F -18 Fe -18 will fly if the first bombs fall on the Houthi target, and when the Tomahawk missiles will be fired. Hegset pushed back, saying that they were clearly not “military plans” and none of them was classified.

President Trump expressed his support for Heagset on Wednesday, saying that he was “doing great work” and described Goldberg as Sleazebag. The White House also tried to say that general information was not technically military planning.

Goldberg did not give up their insults and claims.

“When Pete Hugset, the defense secretary, tells me, telling me that the attack was supposed to be running in Yemen – telling me what aircraft would be used, what weapons would be, and if the bombs will fall two hours after receiving the text, it seems to be sensitive information that plans to me,” he said.

This is not the first time the veterans’ editor was at the end of IRE Trump: in 2020 he published a work in the Atlantic, where high -ranking military officials quoted Trump, as they call dead US soldiers “suckers” and “unsuccessful” that the president and his administration were actively refused.

I asked him how he felt against his personal attacks on him, coming from the highest levels of the government.

“It’s their step. You never defend you, just attack,” Goldberg said. “So, I’m sitting there thinking about my own business. They invite me to this signal chat, and now they attack me like a Sleaze bag, I don’t even understand.”

Trump still defended his national security group and does not seem to be inclined to dismiss anyone for calling the witch’s “hunting.” But Goldberg says the White House has a broad feeling that waltz made a serious mistake, as well as a deeper concern about how to handle the incident.

“If you are the Air Force captain, you currently work with the CIA and the State Department, and you incorrectly attracted sensitive information as they obviously dismissed confidential information? You will be fired, you will be held accountable,” Goldberg said.

He said that there is now some “noise” among the ranks, obviously, different standards of accountability for the leaders of the Trump administration.

Goldberg did not adhere to the chat for falling. He decided that the responsibility was to leave the group. Some journalists have expressed distrust that he would voluntarily come out.

But what happens next will be played in the White House and Congress, where democratic legislators and some Republicans demanded the investigation.

“There is a part of me who would like to see what else is happening there. But there are many different issues related to the law and ethics, and all other questions I really can’t go,” Goldberg said. “Believe me when I say I made such a decision with good advice on different sides.”