Multiple Signal Chats Set Up By Waltz Team Re Sensitive World Issues
[guest post by Dana]
This *should* be surprising, and in a normal administration it would be. But normal is not what we currently have:
National security adviser Mike Waltz’s team regularly set up chats on Signal to coordinate official work on issues including Ukraine, China, Gaza, Middle East policy, Africa and Europe, according to four people who have been personally added to Signal chats.
Two of the people said they were in or have direct knowledge of at least 20 such chats. All four said they saw instances of sensitive information being discussed.
. . .
“Waltz built the entire NSC communications process on Signal,” said one of the people. All four were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the private chats.
. . .
“It was commonplace to stand up chats on any given national security topic,” said one of the people involved in the chats, adding that the groups often included Cabinet members and high- level staff.
The report makes clear that Signal is an “approved method of communicating. . .it is one of a host of approved methods for unclassified material with the understanding that a user must preserve the record[.]”
As you know, Trump called Signalgate a “hoax” and a “witch hunt,” and in fact, came out and said that he didn’t know anything about Signal, and suggested if might be a “defective platform”.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Signal threads discussed “brokering peace between Russia and Ukraine, and military operations.
There is also the issue of Waltz and his staff using Gmail for government communications:
A senior Waltz aide used Gmail “for highly technical conversations with colleagues at other government agencies involving sensitive military positions and powerful weapons systems relating to an ongoing conflict,” The Washington Post wrote.
The Post said it reviewed the emails. “While the NSC official used his Gmail account, his interagency colleagues used government-issued accounts, headers from the email correspondence show,” the report said.
Waltz himself “had less sensitive, but potentially exploitable information sent to his Gmail, such as his schedule and other work documents, said officials, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe what they viewed as problematic handling of information,” the report said. “The officials said Waltz would sometimes copy and paste from his schedule into Signal to coordinate meetings and discussions.”
Eight days ago, Mike Waltz said he took “full responsibility” for Signalgate, as he “built the group”. Does Waltz survive this latest revelation?
Raskin: Would it be problem for it to be standard practice to conduct sensitive foreign policy on a signal chat group… It just came out that Waltz’s team set up 20 signal group chats for crises across the world… I’m sure this will raise the question on whether or not he should… pic.twitter.com/oSNH0FyzgD
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 2, 2025
—Dana
Hello.
Dana (f9fcce) — 4/2/2025 @ 1:16 pmLet me guess. The expectation is that Waltz should be dealt with more severely than Hillary was. Too bad a horrible precedent was set in how we deal with this sort of breach, and that precedent has been defended for nine years.
lloyd (4be8ec) — 4/2/2025 @ 1:32 pmGood to know that you’ve rethought your outrage at Hilary, that was all completely OK the whole time.
Colonel Klink (ret) (96f56a) — 4/2/2025 @ 1:41 pmShouldn’t Republicans be held to a higher standard than Hillary?
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/2/2025 @ 1:55 pmSomeone who knows the meaning of operational security:
More:
Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 4/2/2025 @ 2:20 pmWho goes first walz or musk?
asset (cc4dec) — 4/2/2025 @ 2:27 pmLloyds comments are the best. He readily agrees with the critics of the Trump administration but asserts it’s fine because his political opponents did it first.
What should have happened was some version of
“Improperly using unsecured communications methods isn’t acceptable. I expect my administration to make information security a priority. I’ve tasked the FBI with conducting a thorough national security investigation and prove myself, the DNI, the NSA and all relevant department heads a copy of their report as well as recommendations on potential improvements. I want to stress that I am involving the FBI became they are tasted with Domestic Counter Intelligence and not because there is any reason to suspect a crime has been committed. Their involvement in this type of work is standard procedure and they have experience and expertise in this area. After we have had an opportunity to review their report and recommendations my office will release a summary of their findings. The report itself will not be released as the details of how secure communications are conducted are themselves sensitive information. I will now take questions even though most of them will be pointless until I have the report”
Time (38ed42) — 4/2/2025 @ 2:32 pmNot the same thing.
No one knew about her home-brewed server until years after she was out of office, and then she was investigated by the FBI after it became known.
Waltz is the currently serving NSA and was busted just a couple months in after we now know he was trafficking in national security intel on a hackable commerical app. Where’s the FBI investigation?
Paul Montagu (b69d31) — 4/2/2025 @ 2:37 pmDude, If he understands that point and the details behind it he’s never going to admit it. His team did something dumb, so he’s going to look for something similar the other team did and claim that invalidates the criticism of his team.
Time (38ed42) — 4/2/2025 @ 3:04 pm