Lynch Warns Gabbard, Ratcliffe That 'Conspiracy To Conceal That Breach Would Be Far More Worse'

2 days ago

At today's House DOGE Committee hearing, Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) spoke about the Signal breach.

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Transcript

00:00so ordered. And with that, I yield to Ranking Member Lynch for his opening statement.

00:07Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to thank the witnesses for your willingness to come forward

00:12and offer your advice and testimony to this committee. Madam Chair, for over two decades

00:20of service on this Oversight Committee, I've worked with members on both sides of the aisle

00:25to investigate issues of critical importance to the safety and security of the American people,

00:30including the conduct of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, terrorist attacks against the

00:36U.S. compound classified annex in Benghazi, and several major intelligence and security breaches

00:44under Democratic and Republican administrations. So I'm sad to see that this once-proud committee,

00:50the Principal Investigative Committee in the House of Representatives, has now stooped to

00:55the lowest levels of partisanship and political theater to hold a hearing to go after the likes

01:01of Elmo and Cookie Monster and Arthur the Aardvark, all for the unforgivable sin of teaching

01:08the alphabet to low-income families' children and providing accessible local news and programming.

01:15This hearing also comes at the direction of President Trump and Elon Musk, who have

01:19repeatedly called for the defunding of all public media and claimed that media organizations such

01:24as PBS and NPR are, and I quote, a liberal disinformation machine, close quote. Meanwhile,

01:30the Trump administration is engaged in an actual disinformation campaign to minimize

01:37the catastrophic national security breach that was revealed earlier this week. As reported

01:44by Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg, Mr. Goldberg was inadvertently added to a group

01:48chat on an unauthorized, non-secure, publicly available message app in which Secretary of

01:55Defense Pete Hegseth disclosed, quote, operational details of forthcoming strikes on Yemen,

02:02including information about targets, weapon systems, and other actions the U.S. would be taking

02:10and also attack sequencing. I want to remind my colleagues in Congress that federal law makes it

02:17a crime when a person, through gross negligence, removes information relating to national defense

02:23from its proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of this trust, ought to be

02:28lost, stolen, or abstracted, or destroyed. And what's more, if evidence shows that any of the

02:35parties who were in on that signal chat lied under oath in the Senate yesterday, Mr. Ratcliffe or

02:45Ms. Gabbard, for instance, then certainly conspiracy to conceal that breach would be far

02:50more worse, far worse, where center or criminal intent is in evidence and would be more likely

02:59to invite culpability and possible criminal liability. The Secretary of Defense would be

03:05subject to criminal prosecution and it would be the responsibility of the U.S. Attorney General

03:11to prosecute that, but where a conflict exists, it might require a special prosecutor.

03:18This security breach severely compromised the safety of American troops in advance of imminent

03:23U.S. operations and airstrikes against Houthi rebel positions. It is well documented that the

03:29Houthi arsenal includes anti-aircraft capability, ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, rockets,

03:36and unmanned aerial attack drones. Mr. Goldberg, who was unwittingly elevated to the clearance

03:43level afforded to members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was also joined in the exposed group chat

03:48by Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and National Security Advisor Mike

03:54Walz, and other senior members of President Trump's national security team. This committee

03:59should be questioning every single one of them as to why they were using an unapproved, unsecure,

04:06messaging app to conduct sensitive, classified discussions about military operations in which

04:12our sons and daughters in uniform are being sent into battle. One of the participants was actually

04:19sitting in Russia, sitting in Russia, using an unsecure app, and every member of this committee

04:26knows what that means. We've all been advised about which apps are secure and insecure and

04:32when it is appropriate to engage in non-critical discussions. As former chairman of our subcommittee

04:39on national security, I recall a time when just the potential for a security breach that could

04:45expose American troops and intelligence personnel to unnecessary danger would immediately trigger

04:50hearings and bring this committee to a lather on both sides. But you can bet we won't be touching

04:56this issue because today the controlling house majority is afraid to do its job. It is afraid

05:06to hold Trump and Trump's administration accountable. They would rather post up against

05:12Big Bird than deal with that issue. In reference to public media, Elon Musk recently asked,

05:20should your tax dollars really be paying for an organization run by people who think the truth

05:24is a distraction? Well, I would say the same about the current administration and its

05:29proliferation of disinformation from claims that Ukraine, Ukraine, started its own invasion

05:38to Secretary Hedges' assertion that no one was texting war plans. You can read the text today

05:46because yesterday in the hearing they said it wasn't classified information. So you can actually

05:51go on the New York Times website and read the text that was discussed in advance of our military

06:00operations in Yemen. Madam chair, if shame was still a thing, this hearing would be shameful.

06:06And I yield back the balance of my time.

Lynch Warns Gabbard, Ratcliffe That 'Conspiracy To Conceal That Breach Would Be Far More Worse'

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