Trump administration officials discussing sensitive military information in a Signal chat with an Atlantic reporter has sparked calls for an investigation.

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The White House’s acknowledgment that top Trump administration officials had discussed sensitive military plans using an unclassified messaging platform — and in a group chat that included a journalist — drew immediate criticism from Washington’s national security establishment.

The Atlantic’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, in a report Monday said he had been included in a group chat on encrypted messaging platform Signal this month that discussed upcoming military strikes targeting Yemen’s Houthi militants. The conversation included Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and national security adviser Michael Waltz. The White House said that the message thread “appears to be authentic,” and that administration officials were “reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain.” Hegseth on Monday denied any wrongdoing, insisting, “Nobody was texting war plans.”

Both Democrats and Republicans expressed concerns. Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Mississippi), the top Democrat on the House Committee on Homeland Security, called for an investigation — saying that it “should go without saying that Trump administration officials must not use Signal for discussing sensitive intelligence matters reserved for the Situation Room — and doing so including members of the public is gross incompetence.”

Rep. Michael Lawler (R-New York) said on X, “Classified information should not be transmitted on unsecured channels — and certainly not to those without security clearances, including reporters. Period. Safeguards must be put in place to ensure this never happens again.”

Here’s what to know about the protocol for government officials to communicate sensitive and classified information.