The US National Security Advisor Waltzʼs team held 20 chats on Signal — discussing wars and crises around the world

The team of the US Presidentʼs National Security Advisor Mike Waltz relies on the Signal messenger to coordinate government work on issues of Ukraine, China, the Gaza Strip, the Middle East, Africa and Europe.

Politico writes about this, citing sources.

Two sources said they had been in at least 20 such chats or had direct knowledge of them, while four sources said they had seen instances of confidential information being discussed on Signal.

Longtime national security officials have warned that such use of Signal violates the Preservation of National Security Information Act and federal record retention laws if chats are automatically deleted.

National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes said Signal is allowed on government devices and that some agencies automatically install it on employeesʼ phones. It has also been used by both the Joe Biden and Donald Trump administrations.

“Waltz built the entire National Security Council communications process on Signal,” said one of the officials who participated in several group chats.

What preceded

The editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine Jeffrey Goldberg said that he was accidentally added to a chat on the Signal messenger, where the American operation against the Houthis was being discussed.

He was added to the chat by an account under the name Mike Waltz, the name of the US Presidentʼs national security adviser. According to Goldberg, the chat contained information about targets, the weapons the US would use, and the sequence of attacks. Shortly after, direct attacks on Yemen took place.

Waltz later took responsibility for the incident and said that someone else was supposed to be added to the chat instead of the journalist, but the number was mistakenly added to someone elseʼs list. Trump considered firing Waltz for the Signal chat leak, but did not want to please his critics.

The head of the Pentagon, the directors of the US National Intelligence and CIA, as well as President Donald Trump, denied that military plans and classified information were discussed on the Signal messenger. Therefore, journalists at The Atlantic decided to publish this correspondence.

• The Washington Post later reported that Mike Waltz and his National Security Council team were conducting business via Gmail instead of secure government email.

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