The Atlantic Editor Who Broke “Signalgate” Did Nothing Wrong. He Could Be Prosecuted Anyway.

Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. When Atlantic magazine editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg exposed what is being called “Signalgate”—reporting on a group chat he got added to where high-level government officials shared sensitive information about U.S. plans to attack Houthi rebels—he was taking a big risk, though he did nothing unlawful. Rather than admit responsibility, agents of the Trump administration have attacked Goldberg as “a deceitful and highly discredited, so-called journalist who’s made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again” and a “horrible, radical-Left lunatic” and “total sleazebag” working for a “magazine that is going out of business” whose reporting is “bad for the country.” The national security adviser has indicated that his legal teams are looking into how Goldberg got onto the Signal group and has suggested that Goldberg may have fraudulently joined the group. More significantly, the government could prosecute Goldberg for “eavesdropping” on the principals’ conversations—that is, “acquiring the contents of electronic communications” despite the fact that he was invited to the chat, and therefore was at least a silent participant. They have launched civil lawsuits against 60 Minutes and ABC News and the Des Moines Register for claimed “unfair” reporting, used the @RapidReponse47 Twitter/X account to make personal attacks on reporters, attempted to dismantle Voice of America, opened Federal Communications Commission investigations into PBS and NPR, claimed that reporting by CNN and MSNBC is “illegal,” and even banned the Associated Press from the White House.