Risch says Signal scandal is 'going to be investigated'

Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Tuesday that there's going to be an investigation into top Trump administration officials who carried out sensitive intelligence conversations over a commercial messaging app Signal. 

Risch said he spoke to Secretary of State Marco Rubio "at length," following the bombshell report from The Atlantic that its editor-in-chief was, apparently inadvertently, added to a group chat discussing war attack plans against the Houthis in Yemen. 

Risch noted that Rubio spent 15 years on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and said the secretary "had no knowledge" that a journalist was on the Signal chat, but did not address why the national security principles were communicating in such an unsecured manner. 

"This is a matter that’s going to be investigated, obviously, we’re going to know a lot more about it as the facts role out," Risch said.

"But from the State Department standpoint, I can assure you there was no one at the State Department was aware at all there was the leakage that was going on." 

The Atlantic report, by Jeffrey Goldberg, noted that National Security Advisor Mike Waltz had sent the initial invite to the group. The group also activated a feature to delete the messages after a certain time frame. 

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) the ranking member of the committee, earlier asked Risch to convey the committee's "concern about sharing classified information" with the State Department and called for safeguarding critical information as the Records Act requires.

"I would, as a member of the Intelligence Committee, I know you know better than most, how important this is, and I hope you'll join me and making sure that we send that message to the Department of State," Shaheen said, addressing Risch.