<div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn" data-testid="companionColumn-0"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">President Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Waltz, was pressed by Democrats on Capitol Hill on Tuesday but did not acknowledge any wrongdoing related to a sensitive group chat on the commercial messaging app Signal in March.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Mr. Waltz, during a hearing on his nomination to serve as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, repeated the Trump administration’s defenses of the group chat where <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/24/us/politics/hegseth-classified-war-plans-group-chat.html" title="">senior officials discussed sensitive details</a> of a military operation in Yemen. He was ousted from his national security position following the revelation that he <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/25/us/signal-group-chat-key-figures.html" title="">added a journalist</a> to the group chat that included Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other top officials.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Mr. Waltz told lawmakers that “there was no classified information on that chat,” and did not address why he added the journalist to the discussion on Signal.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">It was the first time Mr. Waltz had appeared before Congress since he was removed from his post. Mr. Trump passed the national security adviser role to Mr. Rubio and nominated Mr. Waltz for the U.N. role in May.</p></div><aside aria-label="companion column" class="css-ew4tgv"></aside></div><div data-testid="Dropzone-1"></div><div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn" data-testid="companionColumn-1"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Mr. Waltz echoed the Trump administration’s defense over the use of Signal, saying that the app was recommended by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency during the Biden administration. <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.cisa.gov/sites/default/files/2024-12/guidance-mobile-communications-best-practices.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">In December</a>, the agency directed “highly targeted individuals” in senior positions to use messaging apps with “end-to-end encryption, such as Signal” as a safer alternative to SMS text messaging.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">But Democrats told Mr. Waltz that he and other top officials should have known better than to share war plans over a commercial messaging app, and pressed him to take responsibility for what Senator Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia, called an “amateur move.”</p><div class="css-kbghgg"><div class="css-121kum4"><div class="css-171quhb"></div><div class="css-asuuk5"><noscript><div class="css-7axq9l" data-testid="optimistic-truncator-noscript"><svg aria-hidden="true" class="css-1b5b8u1" height="24" viewbox="0 0 24 24" width="24"><path clip-rule="evenodd" d="M2.5 12a9.5 9.5 0 1 1 19 0 9.5 9.5 0 0 1-19 0Zm8.5 1.75v-7.5h2v7.5h-2Zm0 2v2h2v-2h-2Z" fill="currentColor" fill-rule="evenodd"></path></svg><div class="css-6yo1no" data-testid="optimistic-truncator-noscript-message"><p class="css-3kpklk" data-tpl="t">We are having trouble retrieving the article content.</p><p class="css-3kpklk" data-tpl="t">Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.</p></div></div></noscript><div class="css-1dv1kvn" id="optimistic-truncator-a11y" tabindex="-1"><hr/><p>Thank you for your patience while we verify access. 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