Washington, March 26 – Virginia U.S. Senator Mark Warner, Vice Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, wrote Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel requesting he confirm that the FBI will open an investigation into the Signal group chat that senior Trump administration officials used to discuss classified information, including information revealing that the United States was preparing to conduct airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen.

  “Department of Defense policies dictate that information concerning military plans, such as contained in the messages sent by the Secretary of Defense, is classified, and no reasonable process would allow for communication of this information over a commercial messaging application before U.S. pilots had completed and safely returned from their mission,” Sen. Warner wrote.   

  Director Patel, who was not part of the Signal chat, testified yesterday before Senate Intelligence Committee stating he could not provide information on this matter because he had only recently been made aware of it.

“Yesterday you testified that you could not provide information to the Committee concerning this matter because you had only recently been made aware of it,” Sen. Warner continued. “In other contexts, the FBI has acted promptly to open an investigation when information of a similar nature has been mishandled.”

Now, two days later, Sen. Warner is requesting that Director Patel clarify the actions the FBI will take to investigate this matter:

  1. Will you commit to opening an investigation of this matter, if you have not already done so?

2. Will you collect the devices involved, whether government-issued or otherwise?

3. Will you scan those devices for malware or other indications of unauthorized access?