Yes, Biden admin authorized use of Signal — but not for sensitive military intel

After The Atlantic's March 24, 2025, report (archived) that U.S. national intelligence officials included the magazine's editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, in a group chat about military strikes in Yemen, CIA Director John Ratcliffe claimed that former U.S. President Joe Biden's administration also used Signal for government communications.

"One of the things I was briefed on very early … was by the CIA records management folks about the use of Signal as a permissible work use," Ratcliffe said during a March 25 Senate Intelligence Committee hearing (see 45:05). "It is. That is a practice that preceded the current administration to the Biden administration." 

On the same day, Sen. Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas, made a similar claim (archived) during an interview with Fox News. 

"The Biden administration authorized Signal as a means of communication that was consistent with presidential record-keeping requirements for its administration — and that continued into the Trump administration," said Cotton, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. 

Claims similar to Cotton and Ratcliffe's appeared on X, Facebook and Reddit. 

While it is true that the Biden administration may have allowed use of Signal in some cases, it also explicitly prohibited using Signal for "non-public" Department of Defense information; furthermore, a DOD investigator wrote in a report during Biden's term that the use of Signal "does not comply" with record-keeping laws and DOD policy. As Ratcliffe, Cotton and others were defending the use of Signal by Trump administration national security officials for what appeared to be sensitive information, including detailed attack plans sent by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, their claims are misleading. 

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has repeatedly stated (see 2:26) that the information discussed on Signal was not classified; on X, she called the story a "hoax written by a Trump-hater who is well known for his sensationalist spin." The White House, the CIA and Cotton did not immediately return requests for comment; it was not possible to reach Biden as of this writing. 

Signal in the Biden administration and beyond

Guidance from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency released in 2024 — under Biden — recommended that "highly targeted" individuals "who are in senior government or senior political positions" should "use only end-to-end encrypted communications" and suggested using an app "such as Signal." It also said Signal and other encrypted apps with "features like disappearing messages and images" help "enhance privacy." 

CISA published these recommendations in response to cyber espionage activity from Chinese government-affiliated actors. While the guidance does not explicitly say it is for either personal or government devices, a news release from CISA announcing the guidance notes highly targeted individuals "should assume that all communications between mobile devices — including government and personal devices — and internet services are at risk of interception or manipulation." 

A March 2025 Associated Press review in all 50 states found Signal accounts for state, local and federal officials in nearly every state, adding up to more than 1,100 government workers or elected officials. AP's report noted that the app is increasingly popular among government officials, but that it can sometimes skirt public records laws because of its auto-delete function. 

However, a CISA spokesperson told Snopes via email that the CISA document "is public guidance, not policy," and directed policy questions to individual agencies. 

Furthermore, a Department of Defense memo from 2023, also released under Biden, explicitly prohibits Defense Department personnel from using Signal to discuss "non-public" DOD information. The relevant portion of the memo, which applies "to all DoD component civilians, military, and supporting contractors and all apps running on unclassified government-owned mobile devices" on Page 3 reads (emphasis ours): 

Unmanaged 'messaging apps,' including any app with a chat feature, regardless of the primary function, are NOT authorized to access, transmit, process non-public DoD information. This includes but is not limited to messaging, gaming, and social media apps. (i.e., iMessage, WhatsApps, Signal). An Exception to Policy (E2P) request must be submitted by the appropriate Component for use of an unmanaged messaging app that is critical to fulfilling mission operations at https://rmfks.osd.mil/dode2p.

It is worth noting that the DOD memo said it does not apply to apps "on traditional desktop operating systems"; Ratcliffe said during the Senate hearing that "Signal was uploaded onto my computer at the CIA" (see 45:05). It is not clear whether officials only used Signal on computers, rather than their phones; Tulsi Gabbard, director of national intelligence and a purported member of the Signal group chat, refused to answer a question about whether she used her "private phone or public phone" for the discussions. (She also refused to say whether she was in the group chat, unlike other officials.) 

However, a June 2021 Department of Defense Office of the Inspector General investigation into a senior Pentagon official explicitly called Signal — and not just Signal on the phone — an "unauthorized electronic messaging and voice-calling application." The same investigation concluded the official, Brett Goldstein, used Signal "in violation of DoD policies" (Page 10) and found "no evidence" that Pentagon officials approved Signal for use by Goldstein or any other employee at the Defense Digital Service, the office Goldstein led within the Defense Department (Page 9). 

"The use of Signal to discuss official DoD information does not comply with Freedom of Information Act requirements and DoD's records retention policies," the investigator wrote in a footnote (Page 2). 

While the DOD documents may not apply specifically to the CIA and Ratcliffe's claims, it does refute Cotton's claim that the Biden administration's Signal authorization policy continued into the Trump administration, as Hegseth, a member of the group chat, was not following the guidelines set by DOD during the Biden administration. The Defense Department and the Office of the Inspector General for the department did not immediately return a request for comment. 

Policy under the Biden administration was unclear as of this writing for the CIA, FBI and other agencies whose leaders were in the Signal chat. However, according to The Associated Press, the Biden administration told officials to use the app "sparingly": 

In the Biden administration, some officials were given permission to download Signal on their White House-issued phones, but were instructed to use the app sparingly, according to a former national security official who served in the Democratic administration.

The official, who requested anonymity to speak about methods used to share sensitive information, said Signal was most commonly used to communicate what they internally referred to as "tippers" to notify someone when they were away from the office or traveling overseas that they should check their "high side" inbox for a classified message.

The app was sometimes also used by officials during the Biden administration to communicate about scheduling of sensitive meetings or classified phone calls when they were outside the office, the official said.

It was not possible to independently verify the anonymous official's identity as of this writing; the three reporters on the story did not immediately return an inquiry from Snopes. This story will be updated if we learn more. 

Thus, while Biden administration officials may have used Signal for some correspondence, there is no evidence the administration authorized its use for sensitive information aside from a public guidance document from CISA encouraging its use for privacy reasons. Furthermore, Department of Defense officials under Biden were explicitly not authorized to use Signal, and The Associated Press, a reputable news outlet, reported that an official who served in the Biden administration denied that officials under the former president used Signal on a frequent basis for sensitive information.