Sen. Grassley: 'There had to be some screw-up' when officials added reporter to group chat

Iowa's Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley said Wednesday he assumed "there had to be some screw-up" when members of President Donald Trump's administration unintentionally added a reporter to a group chat discussing the timing of U.S. strikes on Houthis in Yemen.

Grassley, speaking to Iowa reporters, said he had not read the full transcript of the messages and probably would not, but pointed to the Trump administrations' statements that no classified information was shared on the chat app.

Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg was added to a group chat on Signal, an encrypted messaging app, with senior national security officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. In the chat, Hegseth provided the exact timings of U.S. warplane launches and when bombs would drop in attacks against Iran-backed Houthis before they happened — information that is normally closely guarded.

Grassley said generally, when senators receive sensitive or classified briefings, they do so in a secure room called a sensitive compartmented information facility, or a SCIF.

"I have to assume, even without knowing what was there, that there had to be some screw-up," Grassley said. "But I don't know to what extent that screw-up hurts national security."

Grassley said people in the White House have said there wasn't any national security damage done as a result of the group chat.

"But I want to end by saying national security information must be handled carefully, and that applies to everything, not just what you're asking me about, and the administration has said that there's no classified information to share," Grassley said. "Now, maybe if I heard this in the SCIF myself, I might draw a different conclusion. But right now, I've got to take the administration's word for it because I'm not part of that."

Grassley has been a vocal critic of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server for official business during her tenure in the Obama administration.

The FBI investigated possible criminal violations in how Clinton handled classified information. As chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Grassley led congressional oversight on the Clinton emails issue.

Asked if he thinks the FBI should likewise investigate this situation, Grassley seemed to not to hear the reporter's question and consulted with his staff.

"My staff indicated, as an answer to your question, that there's no connection between this because all of Clinton's stuff was on internet and things like that," Grassley said.

A Grassley spokesperson, responding to a request to clarify Grassley’s comments, said: “Hillary Clinton’s intentional move to set up a non-government server to communicate government business and evade federal recordkeeping for all electronic communications throughout her term as Secretary of State — which included thousands of classified e-mails — is beyond comparison to the Trump administration’s limited communication via a Signal group chat, which contained no classified information.”

Grassley was pressed if he had concerns with the information being shared on an app that is commercially available and potentially hackable by other organizations.

Grassley again pointed to the Trump administration's assertions that no classified information was shared in the chat, and said he personally is overly cautious with national security information.

"I tend to be overprotective of dealing with questions I get from journalists about things that are national security. I don't talk about it, even if it doesn't need the environment of a SCIF, just because I want to be very careful," Grassley said.

Grassley's staff did not immediately respond to a request to clarify whether he believes there should be further investigation.

Grassley plans committee hearings on judicial injunctions

Grassley, as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, plans to hold hearings next week about judicial injunctions — like ones that have halted actions of the Trump administration.

Grassley said he believed district court injunctions affecting the entire country — and not just the district hearing the case — are being misused, and judges are acting as policymakers rather than adjudicating cases. Grassley said he's inviting experts and plans to draft legislation.

"I doubt if any legislation should be passed that would stop all national injunctions," Grassley said. "But the principle here is that in most cases, an injunction … should only be against something in that judicial district and just for the people that are involved in the case and it should only be for a temporary period of time while you're seeking an answer to the question."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.