U.S. Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD) has accused the Trump administration of breaking the law after Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth shared top-secret war plans with other high-ranking officials and a journalist through a Signal chat. Raskin described the situation as the result of “sloppiness” and reckless behavior, creating a serious problem.
In a CNN interview, Raskin made it clear that this breach of security was against the law. “Most certainly it did,” he said when asked if the group chat violated legal rules. He added that this mistake shows the administration’s overall careless approach to the law.
Raskin also criticized the Trump administration for repeatedly ignoring the rule of law. “They’ve been struck down more than 40 times by federal courts because of their disregard for what the law requires,” he said.
Raskin pointed out that the plan shared in the chat was related to war, which Congress, not the President, has the power to declare. “It’s Congress that declares war on Venezuela or Yemen, not the President,” he said. He called the situation not only a failure of security but also a violation of the Constitution.
The congressman also took aim at Republicans who had criticized Hillary Clinton for her handling of classified information as Secretary of State. “It will be easy to find all the Republicans who were demanding investigations into Hillary Clinton, even though most of the information wasn’t classified,” he said. “But this is clearly classified and extremely sensitive. I hope they’ll recognize the seriousness of this and work to fix these problems.”
Watch the segment below from MSNBC:
