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WASHINGTON, DC — Congressman Paul D. Tonko (NY-20) released the following statement in response to reports that senior Trump administration officials, including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, exposed classified war plans in an unsecure group chat that included a reporter.

“Exposing classified war plans in a group chat isn’t just amateurish — it’s a catastrophic intelligence breach that puts all our men and women in uniform at risk. Some members of this group chat were communicating through unsecured channels while they were in Moscow and possibly even at the Kremlin — recklessly exposing our state secrets to our adversaries.

“If these communications had been intercepted by malicious foreign actors, those adversaries would have known the time, place, and manner of impending strikes, putting our service members directly in harm’s way. Just as disturbing, some participants in the group shared information on active intelligence officers in the field — putting their lives in grave danger.

“Any junior officer would be court-martialed for an offense of this magnitude. If the individuals involved in this fiasco don’t resign out of sheer embarrassment, Donald Trump needs to fire them immediately.”

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