This is another one of those stories which would be a five-alarm conflagration in any other day and age, but it will be interesting to see how much press this gets. Pete Hegseth is a TV Secretary of Defense — meaning he can’t do the job but he looks the part and that is all Donald Trump cares about. Our reality right now is Trump’s reality TV version of what governance looks like and he’s assembled quite the cast of incompetents all around him. But even as much as we know that to be true, this really takes the cake.
Hegseth sent war plans for a strike against the Houthi to a journalist at The Atlantic who is not entitled to them and at first he thought it was a hoax. “The world found out shortly before 2 p.m. eastern time on March 15 that the United States was bombing Houthi targets across Yemen.”
I, however, knew two hours before the first bombs exploded that the attack might be coming. The reason I knew this is that Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, had texted me the war plan at 11:44 a.m. The plan included precise information about weapons packages, targets, and timing.
This is going to require some explaining.
Gee, ya think? If Jeffrey Goldberg, the reporter here, had decided to put this on Twitter when he received it, the entire world would have been on notice of an attack by the United States before it happened. This could have been a catastrophe on many levels.
On Tuesday, March 11, I received a connection request on Signal from a user identified as Michael Waltz. Signal is an open-source encrypted messaging service popular with journalists and others who seek more privacy than other text-messaging services are capable of delivering. I assumed that the Michael Waltz in question was President Donald Trump’s national security adviser. I did not assume, however, that the request was from the actual Michael Waltz. I have met him in the past, and though I didn’t find it particularly strange that he might be reaching out to me, I did think it somewhat unusual, given the Trump administration’s contentious relationship with journalists—and Trump’s periodic fixation on me specifically. It immediately crossed my mind that someone could be masquerading as Waltz in order to somehow entrap me. It is not at all uncommon these days for nefarious actors to try to induce journalists to share information that could be used against them.
I accepted the connection request, hoping that this was the actual national security adviser, and that he wanted to chat about Ukraine, or Iran, or some other important matter.
What happened next is that Goldberg was invited to a principals group (except they misspelled it principles and this is the administration that just dismantled the Department of Education) which stunned the reporter. This is not how these things work.
One minute later, a person identified only as “MAR”—the secretary of state is Marco Antonio Rubio—wrote, “Mike Needham for State,” apparently designating the current counselor of the State Department as his representative. At that same moment, a Signal user identified as “JD Vance” wrote, “Andy baker for VP.” One minute after that, “TG” (presumably Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, or someone masquerading as her) wrote, “Joe Kent for DNI.” Nine minutes later, “Scott B”—apparently Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, or someone spoofing his identity, wrote, “Dan Katz for Treasury.” At 4:53 p.m., a user called “Pete Hegseth” wrote, “Dan Caldwell for DoD.” And at 6:34 p.m., “Brian” wrote “Brian McCormack for NSC.” One more person responded: “John Ratcliffe” wrote at 5:24 p.m. with the name of a CIA official to be included in the group. I am not publishing that name, because that person is an active intelligence officer.
Well, I’m glad this journalist understands the ethics of what’s involved here, because it’s clear that Pete Hegseth does not. The story goes on with Goldberg talking to colleagues about how this had to be some kind of a deep fake, that it couldn’t be real. But it was.
The next day, things got even stranger.
At 8:05 a.m. on Friday, March 14, “Michael Waltz” texted the group: “Team, you should have a statement of conclusions with taskings per the Presidents guidance this morning in your high side inboxes.” (High side, in government parlance, refers to classified computer and communications systems.) “State and DOD, we developed suggested notification lists for regional Allies and partners. Joint Staff is sending this am a more specific sequence of events in the coming days and we will work w DOD to ensure COS, OVP and POTUS are briefed.” […]
At this point, a fascinating policy discussion commenced. The account labeled “JD Vance” responded at 8:16: “Team, I am out for the day doing an economic event in Michigan. But I think we are making a mistake.” (Vance was indeed in Michigan that day.) The Vance account goes on to state, “3 percent of US trade runs through the suez. 40 percent of European trade does. There is a real risk that the public doesn’t understand this or why it’s necessary. The strongest reason to do this is, as POTUS said, to send a message.”
The Vance account then goes on to make a noteworthy statement, considering that the vice president has not deviated publicly from Trump’s position on virtually any issue. “I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now. There’s a further risk that we see a moderate to severe spike in oil prices. I am willing to support the consensus of the team and keep these concerns to myself. But there is a strong argument for delaying this a month, doing the messaging work on why this matters, seeing where the economy is, etc.” […]
At 8:27, a message arrived from the “Pete Hegseth” account. “VP: I understand your concerns – and fully support you raising w/ POTUS. Important considerations, most of which are tough to know how they play out (economy, Ukraine peace, Gaza, etc). I think messaging is going to be tough no matter what – nobody knows who the Houthis are – which is why we would need to stay focused on: 1) Biden failed & 2) Iran funded.”
The article is lengthy and detailed and worth the read. Here’s the bottom line about this unspeakable screw up.
Conceivably, Waltz, by coordinating a national-security-related action over Signal, may have violated several provisions of the Espionage Act, which governs the handling of “national defense” information, according to several national-security lawyers interviewed by my colleague Shane Harris for this story. Harris asked them to consider a hypothetical scenario in which a senior U.S. official creates a Signal thread for the express purpose of sharing information with Cabinet officials about an active military operation. He did not show them the actual Signal messages or tell them specifically what had occurred.
All of these lawyers said that a U.S. official should not establish a Signal thread in the first place. Information about an active operation would presumably fit the law’s definition of “national defense” information. The Signal app is not approved by the government for sharing classified information. The government has its own systems for that purpose. If officials want to discuss military activity, they should go into a specially designed space known as a sensitive compartmented information facility, or SCIF—most Cabinet-level national-security officials have one installed in their home—or communicate only on approved government equipment, the lawyers said. Normally, cellphones are not permitted inside a SCIF, which suggests that as these officials were sharing information about an active military operation, they could have been moving around in public. Had they lost their phones, or had they been stolen, the potential risk to national security would have been severe.
Hegseth, Ratcliffe, and other Cabinet-level officials presumably would have the authority to declassify information, and several of the national-security lawyers noted that the hypothetical officials on the Signal chain might claim that they had declassified the information they shared. But this argument rings hollow, they cautioned, because Signal is not an authorized venue for sharing information of such a sensitive nature, regardless of whether it has been stamped “top secret” or not.
There was another potential problem: Waltz set some of the messages in the Signal group to disappear after one week, and some after four. That raises questions about whether the officials may have violated federal records law: Text messages about official acts are considered records that should be preserved.
You see where this is going. Violation of the espionage act, violations of the records act, violations right and left. This is what kakistocracy is, government by the least qualified, and this is where it goes. It’s laudable that this journalist acted responsibly or this could have been an incredible mess. Once again, the Trump administration displays its true colors, which is that it’s a cadre of clowns with flamethrowers. Eventually somebody is going to get badly burned.
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Zoomers, if you have any spare change between the cushions, we could use it. We’re in a rough season now with half the country depressed and a lot of people tuning out from politics. In all events, thank you for coming here to read. We’ll get through this together, I have complete faith. When I do not know. Ursula
Is it even possible to consider constructing a Bingo card to anticipate kakistrocatic cock-ups?
It would have to be the size of a house, accessible only by ladders.
but Hilary’s emails!
A thousand clowns 🤡
It IS an incredible mess! Trump told a reporter in a press conference today that he knew nothing about it. (Yet the GOP still accuses President Biden of being out of the loop during his term.)
Wanna bet who DID know about it. Our adversaries could have easily hacked a Signal thread accessed by unsecured cell phones.
Congress must demand an investigation. But expect GOP members to claim it was “no big deal,” don’t you know?
“I know nothing about it” is his Standard Operating Procedure, alongside attacking the victim or, in this case, the innocent bystander (Goldberg) who acted absolutely correctly. Others might have gone straight to print or lain low in the group waiting for the next topic to drop.
I want heads to roll, but they won’t. If Dems had done this the Reputincans would be asking for arrests, etc. I hope the military realize the danger they’ve been put in.
“Normally, cellphones are not permitted inside a SCIF, which suggests that as these officials were sharing information about an active military operation, they could have been moving around in public. Had they lost their phones, or had they been stolen, the potential risk to national security would have been severe.”
But presumably not as severe as including a journalist in the information chain, someone with no security clearance at all – and an interest in disseminating it ?
The word kakistocracy doesn’t even begin to cover it.
It is all something of a moot point, the Russians and Chinese would have known all this anyway through their usual contacts with the Trump regime, like Trusk and Mump.
The last people to know would have been the previous allies of the USA like the rest of NATO.
Incompetence on steroids.