WASHINGTON — The Atlantic on Wednesday released nearly the entire Signal chat among senior national security officials, showing that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth provided the exact timings of warplane launches and when bombs would drop — before the men and women flying those attacks against Yemen’s Houthis this month on behalf of the United States were airborne.

The publication of additional messages Wednesday came hours before top intelligence officials who were part of a group chat, which had inadvertently included The Atlantic’s top editor, testified before the House Intelligence Committee.

The disclosure follows several days during which leaders of President Donald Trump’s intelligence and defense agencies have struggled to explain how details — that current and former U.S. officials have said would have been classified — wound up on an unclassified Signal chat that included Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has said no classified information was posted to the chat.

Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he and Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, the committee’s top Democrat, plan to send a letter to the Trump administration requesting an inspector general investigation into the use of Signal. They seek a classified briefing with a top administration official “who can speak to the facts” of the episode.

Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, and John Ratcliffe, the director of the CIA, faced questions over the chat, whose disclosure was a stunning breach of operational secrecy that Trump administration officials have attempted to downplay.

The newly published messages, which include screenshots of the full chat on the messaging app Signal, make clear that Hegseth included specific details of the timing of the launches from aircraft carriers of the U.S. military jets that were to strike Houthi targets.

Launch times are typically closely guarded to ensure that the targets cannot move into hiding or mount a counterattack as planes are taking off, when they are potentially vulnerable.

Testifying before the House panel, Gabbard reiterated her assertion that no classified information was shared on the chat. She was pressed by Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the committee, about her testimony to a Senate panel Tuesday that precise details of the attack were not included in the messages. She replied: “My answer yesterday was based on my recollection, or the lack thereof, on the details that were posted there.”

Ratcliffe said the newly released information shows that he did not put classified information into the chat. “I used an appropriate channel to communicate sensitive information,” he said. “It was permissible to do so. I didn’t transfer any classified information.”

The Atlantic said its release Wednesday included all the texts except the name of a CIA officer working as an aide to Ratcliffe at the request of the CIA.

Hegseth has refused to say whether he posted classified information onto Signal.

Speaking to reporters in Hawaii on Wednesday after the full release of the texts, he said they showed he was just providing the national security team a “general update in real time.”

Hegseth shared the information on the manned warplane launches a half-hour before those crews were airborne, not in real time. Democratic lawmakers said that could have put American troops at risk.

What was revealed was jaw-dropping in its specificity and includes the type of information that is kept to a very close hold to protect the operational security of a military strike. But Hegseth’s spokesman, Sean Parnell, said in a statement Wednesday that “there were no classified materials or war plans shared. The Secretary was merely updating the group on a plan that was underway.”

The Pentagon and White House have tried to deflect criticism by attacking Goldberg and The Atlantic.

In the group chat, Hegseth posted multiple details about the impending strike, using military language and laying out when a “strike window” starts, where a “target terrorist” was located, the time elements around the attack and when various weapons and aircraft would be used in the strike. He mentioned that the U.S. was “currently clean” on operational security.

“Godspeed to our Warriors,” he wrote.

“1215et: F-18s LAUNCH (1st strike package)”

“1345: ‘Trigger Based’ F-18 1st Strike Window Starts (Target Terrorist is @ his Known Location so SHOULD BE ON TIME — also, Strike Drones Launch (MQ-9s)”

“1410: More F-18s LAUNCH (2nd strike package)”

“1415: Strike Drones on Target (THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP, pending earlier ‘Trigger Based’ targets)”

“1536 F-18 2nd Strike Starts — also, first sea-based Tomahawks launched.”

“MORE TO FOLLOW (per timeline)”

“We are currently clean on OPSEC” — that is, operational security.

A strike package includes the personnel and weapons used in an attack, including Navy F-18 fighter aircraft. MQ-9s are armed drones. Tomahawks are ship-launched cruise missiles.

Goldberg has said he asked the White House if it opposed publication and that the White House responded that it would prefer he did not publish.

The New York Times contributed.