At Hearing on Securing America’s Phones, Republicans Defend Trump Officials Sharing Military Plans on Signal and Gmail

Washington, D.C. (April 2, 2025)— Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on the Military and Foreign Affairs, led Subcommittee Democrats in rebuking the Trump Administration’s use of an insecure phone app and personal Gmail accounts to share likely classified and highly sensitive information.  

“Salt Typhoon is one of the worst breaches our country has ever faced in our telecom infrastructure ... And so, it’s deeply troubling that in the midst of this massive cybersecurity espionage effort we’re facing, our national security advisors are breaking basic protocols that ought to be followed by every person handling sensitive and classified information.  As we saw last week, our National Security Advisor added a journalist to a Signal group chat where top officials shared classified information about an upcoming strike,” said Ranking Member Subramanyam in his opening statement.  He later added:  “I hope my colleagues on both sides of the aisle today will join me in trying to provide real accountability and oversight over these actions.  And we’re here to talk about the risk of state sponsored cyberattacks—let’s confront this most urgent vulnerability and work together to investigate this massive security leak.  This is an issue of national security and [concerns] the safety of every American.” 

The hearing included testimony from Dr. Matt Blaze, Professor, George Washington University;  Dr. Edward Amoroso, CEO, TAG Infosphere Inc, and Research Professor, New York University;  and Josh Steinman, CEO, Galvanick. 

Committee Democrats condemned the Trump Administration’s use of Signal to discuss highly sensitive strike plans, demonstrating gross operational incompetence that threatens national security and the lives of American servicemembers.  

• Ranking Member Subramanyam noted the severity of the operational carelessness of senior national security officials, saying:  “It’s hard to believe that they would even be using Signal. …  I think it’s pretty clear that this shouldn’t have been happening and if any regular or low-level intelligence staff had been involved in anything like this, they would have been fired immediately.”
• Rep. Stephen F. Lynch emphasized that the real-world risks of such reckless behavior for America’s national security and servicemembers should warrant strong bipartisan partnership on the Committee “to protect our sons and daughters.”  He further noted how he has “worked over 25 years hand-in-hand with my Republican colleagues on issues of national security,” but that this incident represents “a colossal failure.”  Rep. Lynch explained, “It is pointless for us to sit in this Committee and try to grapple with the real issue of Salt Typhoon and other threats to our communication systems if the people at the top don’t take it seriously. ...  This is not politicization; this is national security.”
• Rep. Robert Garcia highlighted the gravity of the threat posed by the Signal breach: “Clearly China is targeting our networks, and we need to step up to prevent them and prevent other attacks from happening. …  The American people demand accountability for the Signal disclosures.”  Dr. Blaze responded by stating, “It’s safe to say that if I did something like that, my access to classified information would be immediately revoked.  I would probably be terminated immediately and be facing a criminal investigation.” 

Committee Democrats underscored that the United States cannot adequately protect from cyberattacks when senior leaders are taking a chainsaw to our cybersecurity protections and refuse to comply with basic information security measures.  

• Ranking Member Subramanyam explained that the Trump Administration has made drastic cuts to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and has “actually been laying off a lot of our top cybersecurity experts at CISA and across the government,” prompting Dr. Blaze to reiterate that “having an active defense to identify and fix vulnerabilities from all sectors…is essential.”  
• In highlighting the danger posed by the Trump Administration’s cuts to CISA, Dr. Blaze explained:  “CISA in both the first Trump Administration and the Biden Administration was an invaluable resource in protecting critical infrastructure.  It’s a small agency that has arguably been understaffed from the beginning.  But it is essentially the only clearinghouse for threat intelligence across the public and private sector.  And any diminution of that capability will harm us.” 

Committee Democrats condemned the Trump-Musk Administration for endangering our national security and enabling harmful cyberattacks on our government, industries, and infrastructure. 

• Ranking Member Subramanyam emphasized how the Trump Administration’s reckless behavior enables state-sponsored cyber espionage and empowers our adversaries:  “The Administration has not taken responsibility [for the Signal breach] and tried to deflect, saying that it isn’t a big deal and the mission was a success.  But this is a big deal, and the mission is not a success if the whole world now knows how we did it, how we planned these attacks, and where we got the information.  We’ve made it much harder and more dangerous for our troops to carry out these missions in the future.”  
• Rep. Garcia highlighted the enormous risk to American servicemembers posed by the leaks of classified information, stating:  “We got lucky this time that no Americans were killed, but unless things change, we’re sitting on a ticking time bomb.”
• Ranking Member Subramanyam highlighted the lack of accountability the Trump Administration has shown in relation to the Signal breach, noting:  “I haven’t heard from the Administration much about this being an error. ...  What I really want to hear from the Administration is that they made a mistake, that they’re going to fix it, and here are the steps they are going to take to make corrective actions in fixing what was a serious, serious blunder, and serious leak of national security intelligence. ...  There is no one admitting that they made a mistake.” 

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