Leader Schumer Floor Remarks Calling For The Full Release Of The Signal Chat Transcript Following The Alarming Mishandling Of Classified Military Intelligence By Trump Administration Officials

Washington, D.C. – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor calling on the Trump administration to release the full, unredacted transcript of the Signal chat following the dangerous mishandling of information by administration officials. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

The more we learn about the unsecure text exchange of sensitive military operations, the more questions we have about how such an egregious breach of military intelligence occurred in the first place.

What The Atlantic released today is confounding and extremely disturbing to any American who worries about our national security and our safety. It is appalling. Worst of all, it confirms our darkest assumptions about the mishandling of sensitive military operations.

So, the release of this letter was extremely important, but many outstanding questions are not answered by this report, so we need the full text exchange released by the administration. 

This morning’s report reinforces the need for immediate answers, transparency, and accountability from President Trump, Secretary Hegseth, and all the others who were involved.

Today, I wrote a letter, with top Senate Democrats, to President Trump and Secretary Hegseth, demanding they release the full, unredacted transcript of all texts in their signal chats.

Many outstanding questions are simply not answered by The Atlantic’s release of the text messages this morning. That is why we need all the texts in the signal chat.

This includes all text exchanges that occurred after Mr. Goldberg removed himself from the group chat. Mr. Goldberg released his information, so now the administration must release theirs.

Again, what is so damaging is not just the presence of a reporter, as bad as that was. It’s that these sensitive conversations happened on an unsecure channel at all, and that’s why we need all the texts.

Director of National Intelligence Gabbard testified that no classified information was shared in the text chain. So, what is the administration hiding by not releasing the full and complete transcript of this text chain?

If no classified information was shared, the administration should have no issue with the full transcript being shared with Senators.

Again, this is something that cannot be answered by this morning’s report from The Atlantic, as important as Mr. Goldberg’s release was.

We have other questions in our letter too.

Americans need to know if any officials in the chat used personal devices that lacked government overwatch and cybersecurity protections. How many of these officials were overseas during these conversations, susceptible to foreign surveillance?

It is alarming – alarming – that Director Gabbard refused to answer repeated questioning on whether or not she was using her personal phone. That should be a very easy “of course not!” But it didn’t come from her.

Were there any other individuals without any security clearance erroneously included in the text chain?

Has the intelligence community fully assessed the damage caused by the potential leak of classified information?

Are there any other Cabinet-level officials using unsecure channels like Signal to discuss classified or sensitive information?

And another important question – are there any other conversations that have taken place like this?

These are all questions we have asked in our letter. They're all very important. They all follow on what Mr. Goldberg released. But as I said, there are so many outstanding questions even after the release of Mr. Goldberg's text that we need answers to.

The American people need answers to these questions. What we learned this morning from the Atlantic is appalling, confounding, and disturbing, and it reinforces the need to get answers to the questions in our letter.

Our letter seeks to get to the bottom of these things, to ensure that this never, never happens again.

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