Pam Bondi downplays the seriousness of Signal chat leaks

Attorney General Pam Bondi signaled on Thursday that a criminal investigation into the sharing of military operation details in an unsecured text group chat is unlikely. 

Speaking at a news conference in Virginia, Bondi said the specifics of when fighter jets would depart and when bombs would fall were “not classified.” 

Her comments come amid public debate over Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s decision to send details of an upcoming attack on rebels in Yemen to senior administration officials in a Signal group chat that mistakenly included a magazine editor.

Bondi described the information as “sensitive, not classified, and inadvertently released.” She praised the military operation as a “very successful mission” and quickly shifted focus to criticize past administrations. 

“If you want to talk about classified information, talk about what was in Hillary Clinton’s home,” she said. “Talk about the classified documents in Joe Biden’s garage, that Hunter Biden had access to.” 

Bondi pointed out that while the Justice Department opened investigations into both Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Biden, neither faced criminal charges. She made no mention of the earlier prosecution regarding Donald J. Trump’s handling of classified documents, a case that was dropped after his reelection.

Former Justice Department prosecutor Michael Zweiback has handled classified info investigations. He said, “In terms of prior investigations, there were set-out standards that the department always looked at and tried to follow when making determinations about which types of disclosures they were going to pursue.”

The Signal chat leaks don’t fall under traditional classification of military plans

She emphasized that the details in question, though sensitive, did not fall under the traditional classification of “military plans, weapons or operations” as defined by decades of practice dating back to the Reagan administration. 

While the F.B.I. and the Justice Department still have the authority to investigate under the Espionage Act—which allows for charges over mishandling national defense information even if it is not classified—such prosecutions are extremely rare.

The incident unfolded this month when, mere hours before military strikes against Houthi targets, Defense Secretary Hegseth texted the group outlining the plan of attack, including the specific time when “the first bombs will definitely drop.” 

After the operation was carried out, the details of the conversation were revealed by Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief of The Atlantic, who had been accidentally included in the group chat. 

Hegseth and other senior officials said that the information he shared was not classified, arguing that it was ultimately up to his department to decide what should be considered classified. 

National security experts, however, criticized this stance as contrary to basic common sense and longstanding practices among military and intelligence agencies.

The debate over the leaked information spilled into Capitol Hill during a congressional hearing on Wednesday. 

Tulsi Gabbard, director of national intelligence, assured the House Intelligence Committee that “no sources, methods, locations or war plans” were shared in the text. In response, Representative Joaquin Castro, Democrat from Texas, dismissed the claims, stating, “You all know that’s a lie. It’s a lie to the country.”

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