Follow up to ‘Boggles the mind’: Trump aide central to war plan debacle left Venmo friends list public and The High Cost of Team Trump’s Sloppy OPSE, The Atlantic’s Editor in Chief Jeffrey Goldberg and Shane Harris respond with the transcript of the Signal group chat [unpaywalled] after Trump and participants on the national security chat repeatedly attacked Goldberg and claimed the chat did not jeopardize our national security. The chapter and verse they all used while lying under oath during Congressional testimony included this statement: “There was no classified material that was shared in that Signal group…” The information released includes the names and respective statements of all the participants in the chat, including the indefensible, unprofessional use of emojis that accompany the text of the chat. Open chatting about battle plans constitutes not only a breach of national security protocols, but puts our service members at direct risk.
See also “Days after a journalist reported that he was accidentally included in a highly sensitive Signal group chat with top Trump administration officials, other reporters dug up the private contact information on senior national security officials on the internet….German news outlet Der Spiegel reported Wednesday that it was able to find phone numbers, email addresses, and in some cases, passwords for top officials including Hegseth, national security adviser Mike Waltz and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. Der Spiegel reported that many of the numbers and email addresses that were freely available on the internet still appear to be in use, and in some cases linked to social media accounts and LinkedIn profiles. The outlet found that some of the numbers are also linked to WhatsApp profiles and Signal accounts. Der Spiegel said it found some contact information for Hegseth, Gabbard and Waltz in commercial databases, adding that it was “particularly easy” for it to dig up Hegseth’s phone number and email address. That number was linked to a WhatsApp account that was recently deleted, the outlet reported…” And Nicholas Thomson, CEO, The Atlantic – One lesson from this story: how honest, consistent, and careful with national security the best reporters are compared to the people who always attack them.
- See also Nicholas Thomson, CEO, The Atlantic – One lesson from this story: how honest, consistent, and careful with national security the best reporters are compared to the people who always attack the journalists.
- NBC News: The Espionage Act contains a provision making it crime to disclose national defense secrets “through gross negligence.” The law does not require info be classified, because it was written before the classification system existed. The law refers simply to “national defense information.” Negligently disclosing national defense information is illegal — and it doesn’t have to be classified The Espionage Act, the law that often has been used in criminal cases involving leaks or mishandling of classified information, contains a provision making it.
- See also WSJ, on the Signal group chat fiasco: In past years, such a breach would likely have given rise to a separate and more thorough investigation by the FBI and Justice Department’s national security division to assess the extent of the potential harm and whether any laws were violated. But top Justice Department officials appear not to be mounting such an inquiry.
