WASHINGTON, D.C. — In an open hearing of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee (SSCI), U.S. Senator Angus King (I-ME) grilled Joseph Kent, nominee to be Director of the National Counterterrorism Center in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, about whether it was appropriate to share highly detailed information about an imminent military strike in an unsecure Signal chain made up of top national security intelligence officials — and, inadvertently, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic Jeffrey Goldberg.

The hearing comes after The Atlantic published a story revealing that National Security Advisor Mike Waltz accidently added Golberg to the chat, and after Tulsi Gabbard appeared in front of the Intelligence Committee claiming no sensitive or classified information was shared in the Signal chat. During the exchange, Kent continually dodged Senator King’s questions, claiming current litigation prevents him from discussing the security breach.

“You mentioned several times there was no classified information in that telephone call, in that signal chat, so you don't consider the timing of an attack, the weapons being used, and when those weapons are going to be deployed, as sensitive, otherwise classified. I realize it wasn't formally classified, but if you had done that as a junior staffer at the National Security Council, wouldn't you have been fired to hand out that kind of information on an insecure public platform,” asked Senator King.

“There was no classified information in that Signal chat,” replied Kent.

Senator King further questioned, “So, telling an adversary when the attack is going to happen, that's not classified? I mean, you're saying it's not classified, you're just giving it a bit of semantics. But any person in this room would tell us that attack plans involving timing, and weapons would be of immense value if it had been the Houthis instead of Jeff Goldberg. We would have lost pilots in that strike. Would we not?”

“There is no classified information, and it's currently under litigation. So, I really can't say much more about the Signal chain,” responded Kent.

“And you can't even tell us what telephone you were using. What possible litigation excuse is there for not telling us what telephone you were using,” asked Senator King.

“The details of the signal chat are currently under investigation so there’s not much more…,” said Kent.

“What’s the litigation,” Senator King asked again.

“There’s litigation against multiple members that were in the chat group right now,” replied Kent.

“Well, you say it's not classified, if it walks like a duck and looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's classified,” said Senator King.

Senator King has been consistently sounding the alarm on President Donald Trump’s existential threat to the Constitution, as well as the reckless actions taken by the President and his Administration. He previously gave a speech on the Senate floor sharing that this administration is doing ‘exactly what the Framers [of the Constitution] most feared.” Senator King also previously declared that the proposal to halt all federal grant and loan disbursement was illegal and a direct assault on the Constitution. He also joined fellow Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) colleagues in writing a letter to the White House about the risks to national security by allowing unvetted Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staff and representatives to access classified and sensitive government materials. Recently, he sounded the alarm on the Senate floor on the “thoughtless and dangerous” firings and freezes being implemented by Elon Musks’ DOGE.

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