Signal Clone Used By Trump Officials Reportedly Breached — Hacker Says It Took 20 Minutes
'Whole process took about 15-20 minutes'
There’s Absolutely Nothing But Politics To The Time-Wasting Signal Chat Hullabaloo
The chat should not have included a journalist, but the error pales in comparison to other egregious acts from Washington's elected leaders.CNN host won't stop asking about about group chat, so VA Sec. Doug Collins goes on the warpath
The liberal media, like the Democratic Party, has struggled in recent months to manufacture a Russia collusion-grade narrative capable of embarrassing or hindering the Trump administration.
This explains their excitement over the Atlantic's Monday story concerning a liberal propagandist's accidental inclusion in a top-level group chat concerning a military operation — a blunder that the man responsible, national security adviser Mike Waltz, ultimately admitted was "embarrassing."
In the grips of this excitement, CNN talking head Kaitlan Collins proved almost incapable Wednesday evening of discussing anything else with Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins, who was not part of the group chat and had virtually nothing to do with the matter.
Unwilling to indulge the CNN host's desire to gossip or to go on the defensive, Sec. Doug Collins turned the tables, set the agenda, and hammered the liberal network over its apparent mistreatment of veterans.
At the outset of the interview, the CNN host said, "You served in the Navy and the Air Force. How would you have felt if information like this was talked about, in an unclassified group chat, if a Navy fighter pilot is in the air?"
'Since you undoubtedly do not want to talk about the VA, I have a question.'
"I think the president and those involved in the chat, which I was not involved in the chat, have explained that. I trust the president's opinion on that. I trust what's been going on," said Sec. Collins. "Everyone's entitled to their own opinion. And my opinion is that my job is to take care of veterans in this country, as they come out of service, and that's what I'm going to continue to do."
The CNN host did not take the hint and kept asking the VA secretary about the group chat controversy.
"Kaitlan, as I've just told you, I've just answered the question. I wasn't part of it," said Sec. Collins. "And I'm not going to speculate more than what the president's already talked about and those who have been involved have talked about, but would love to talk about the veterans."
The CNN host asked once again about the Signal group chat, evidently stretching Sec. Collins' patience to its limit.
"Since you undoubtedly do not want to talk about the VA, I have a question, as VA secretary," said Sec. Collins. "I want to ask you — because I've been curious about this, because my job is to take care of veterans — and I would like to know why CNN is hostile to veterans, especially one in Florida where you just had a $5 million defamation suit, taking offense at a veteran who was trying to help people. In fact, one of your employees actually said, 'We're going to nail him.'"
Sec. Collins was referring to CNN's costly smear of Navy veteran Zachary Young, whom the liberal network falsely accused in a 2021 "The Lead with Jake Tapper" segment of illegally participating in a "black market" for exfiltration services in Afghanistan after the Biden administration's disastrous military withdrawal.
In January, a jury in Florida ordered the network to pay $5 million for its defamatory segment, reported the New York Times. Before the jury had a chance to award more punitive damages in the case, CNN reportedly settled for an undisclosed sum.
During the trial, the jury saw internal CNN communications in which CNN chief national security correspondent Alexander Marquardt stated, "We gonna nail this Zachary Young."
'You want to talk about everything else.'
Sec. Collins asked the CNN host Wednesday, "Is that employee still employed? Are you really concerned about veterans?"
"If we don't want to talk about veterans now, and you want to talk about everything else, I'd like to hear from CNN, as the veteran Cabinet secretary, why CNN seems to have a problem with veterans?" continued Sec. Collins.
The CNN talking head desperately tried to take control of the conversation, but Sec. Collins did not let up.
"Answer my question, Kaitlan," said the secretary.
When the answers failed to materialize, Sec. Collins indicated again that his preference was to discuss veterans and their priorities rather than to join her in idle speculation.
The CNN host then unironically stated in reference to the secretary's questions about CNN's defamation of a veteran that she had no involvement in the matter he was interested in discussing.
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Mike Waltz takes 'full responsibility' for Goldberg-compromised group chat: 'Embarrassing'
National security adviser Mike Waltz assumed "full responsibility" Tuesday for inviting a rabid anti-Trump polemicist into a private group chat where senior administration officials including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Vice President JD Vance discussed attacks on Iran-backed Houthi terrorists.
President Donald Trump made clear that this assumption of responsibility would not be professionally fatal, indicating that the former Florida congressman's job was safe.
Trump told NBC News that "Michael Waltz has learned a lesson" and that the story is a non-issue.
Quick background
Waltz reportedly sent a connection request on the encrypted messaging app Signal to Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in chief of the Atlantic, on March 11. Then two days later, he apparently invited Goldberg into a group chat called the "Houthi PC small group."
Goldberg isn't just any Trump-obsessed rumor-monger; he is the man behind the debunked "f**king Mexican" burial story, the "'losers' and 'suckers'" hoax, and numerous other smears that Democrats have tried to politically weaponize.
The group chat was reportedly crowded with top officials in the Trump administration, including Hegseth, Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe. Goldberg, whose presence somehow went unnoticed, observed these individuals discussing airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen; implications of the strikes for trade; messaging about the attacks; and the relative uselessness of European navies.
While Goldberg was more than happy to publish screenshots of relatively innocuous exchanges in the group chat — including Vance's stated frustration with "bailing Europe out again" — he initially omitted the "war plans" that Hegseth supposedly shared in the chat two hours ahead of strikes on Yemen, claiming they contained sensitive information. The Atlantic has since published the supposed "war plans," which appear to have been a detail-light mission summary.
The administration ultimately confirmed that the message chain discussed in Goldberg's Monday article was authentic but disputed the polemicist's suggestion that Hegseth shared "war plans," certainly not of a sensitive or classified nature.
Hegseth told reporters that contrary to what was asserted by the "deceitful and highly discredited so-called journalist," "nobody was texting war plans."
'The Atlantic is a failed magazine, does very poorly; nobody gives a damn about it.'
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt underscored that no war plans were discussed, "no classified material was sent to the thread," and the "White House Counsel's Office has provided guidance on a number of different platforms for President Trump's top officials to communicate as safely and efficiently as possible."
As Democrats and the liberal media tried to make the most out of the scandal, there were apparently discussions at the White House about what fate might befall Waltz.
While unnamed White House staffers told Politico that the general consensus was that "Mike Waltz is a f***king idiot" and there was debate over whether to can him, top administration officials told Axios that Waltz would survive the scandal.
Accountability and mercy
Fox News' Laura Ingraham asked Waltz Tuesday evening, "How did a Trump-hating editor of the Atlantic end up on your Signal chat?"
Waltz told the legacy media host that he is "not a conspiracy theorist," then insinuated that Goldberg may have infiltrated the group chat by unseemly means or with an insider's help.
"I just talked to Elon [Musk] on the way here. We have the best technical minds looking at how this happened," said Waltz. "But I can tell you, I can tell you for 100%, I don’t know this guy. I know him by his horrible reputation, and he really is the bottom scum of journalists. And I know him in the sense that he hates the president, but I don't text him. He wasn't on my phone, and we're going to figure out how this happened."
Karoline Leavitt later confirmed that "Elon Musk's team of experts are looking at this, the White House Counsel's Office, and the National Security Counsel are all digging into this matter of course to ensure this can never happen again."
While Waltz indicated that Goldberg's invitation is presently a mystery, he furnished Ingraham with a simple explanation: Goldberg's number was in his phone under the wrong name.
"I'm sure everybody out there has had a contact where it ... said one person and then [showed] a different phone number," said the national security adviser, adding that his blunder was "embarrassing."
"But you've never talked to him before, so how is the number on your phone?" said Ingraham. "I'm not an expert on any of this, but how is the number on your phone?"
When Ingraham chased the implication that someone on Trump's or Waltz's team might be to blame, Waltz clarified that key Trump officials and staff on the call were blameless, stating, "I take full responsibility. I built the — I built the group. My job is to make sure everything is coordinated."
During a Tuesday meeting with American ambassadors, Trump told reporters that Goldberg is "a total sleazebag" and stated, "The Atlantic is a failed magazine, does very poorly; nobody gives a damn about it."
'I think it was very unfair the way they attacked Michael.'
"That man is a very good man right there that you criticize so strongly," said Trump, referring to Waltz. "He will continue to do a good job."
The president further indicated that Goldberg's presence on the chat had no impact on the strikes and that no classified information was shared in the chat.
"If it was classified information, it's probably a little bit different. But I always say you have to learn from every experience," said Trump. "I think it was very unfair the way they attacked Michael. He's a good person. The person that was on just happens to be a sleazebag."
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Denver mayor used auto-delete messaging platform to have secret talks about migrant crisis
Democratic Denver Mayor Mike Johnston and his team used Signal, a messaging application with an auto-delete feature, to have secret communications about the sanctuary city's immigration crisis.
KCNC-TV revealed the scandal in a Thursday report, explaining that the mayor and 14 of his senior advisers, appointees, and lawyers created a "Strike Force" group on the application to have sensitive discussions that would otherwise have been accessible to the public through open records requests. Instead, the end-to-end encryption software and its auto-delete feature concealed their communications.
'Giving the impression that we are doing something we don't want the public to see.'
Joshua Posner, the mayor's director of strategic initiatives, sent a text message on January 15 to several administration members instructing them to move their conversations about immigration to Signal, KCNC reported.
Posner wrote, "We are going to use Signal to communicate with Strike Force so that communication remains encrypted and secure (and messages auto delete.)"
He proceeded to explain to the mayor's team how to download the application to their phones.
Steven Zansberg, a Denver attorney, told KCNC that the actions of the mayor and his administration were "unlawful."
"It deprives us of the rights we have as Coloradans to observe the conduct of public business," he stated, noting that three years is the "standard records retention requirement."
"It seems like a pretty plain, straightforward, deliberate effort to evade transparency," Zansberg concluded.
Jeff Roberts, director of the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition, also argued that the move undermined that state's open records law.
"This is not transparent," Roberts told the news outlet. "They are giving the impression that we are doing something we don't want the public to see. The city is saying at the get-go, 'These are records the public should never see.'"
When confronted about the messaging scandal, Johnston's office blamed President Donald Trump's administration.
Jordan Fuja, a spokesperson for the mayor, told KCNC, "When President Trump took office in January, it was clear that there would be rapidly developing changes to the way the federal government interacts with cities that could have significant impacts on how Denver operates. The particular group was started in January for internal staff to easily keep track of and share information regarding federal actions that impact Denver under the new administration."
Fuja argued, "The City retention schedule does not obligate city employees to retain electronic mail messages."
KCNC reported that the city confirmed Signal messages were set to auto-delete from January 15 to January 29, after which the feature was disabled.
The decision to move the communication to Signal came just weeks after America First Legal requested that Johnston's administration turn over communications related to immigration issues.
AFL demanded "all records, including communications, calendar entries, and documents mentioning or belonging to Mike Johnston, Mayor since November 1, 2024."
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'Patriot Act 2.0' — Lindsey Graham's DANGEROUS plan after Trump shooting
FBI whistleblower Steve Friend has a warning in the aftermath of the assassination attempt on Trump — and it’s not for former President Trump.
“There was an exchange between deputy director Paul Abbate and Ron Johnson from Wisconsin, where to the layperson it seems reasonable the FBI wants to open up all avenues, remove the blindfold, have no blinders on, consider the fact that this could be assassination, this could be domestic terrorism,” Friend tells Jill Savage of “Blaze News Tonight.”
However, to the non-layperson — this could mean something more sinister.
“When you designate something as a domestic terrorist investigation, that enables you to make it classified, and when you have a classification code on there, you have to have a need to know in a security clearance,” Friend explains.
Because of that, the FBI can withhold information.
“The American people are not going to have the transparency that we ultimately need for this investigation,” he says.
While the FBI’s actions are concerning, that’s not Savage’s only concern.
“Lindsey Graham had a very concerning solution for the issues with the investigation,” Savage tells Friend.
“We have encrypted apps of an assassin, a murderer, and we can’t get into them all these days after,” Graham said. “That needs to be fixed folks. I’m all for privacy, but to a point.”
“What if, in the future, somebody’s using these apps to communicate with a foreign power. I think we need to know these things. We need to know them in real time,” he added.
Friend says that Graham’s suggestion would effectively render the Fourth Amendment a “dead letter, at that point.”
Graham’s use of the phrase “real time” is also concerning.
“Real time, which means continually monitoring it,” Friend explains.
“This is the government assuming that a tool will be used for ill, when it is just a tool. Because we don’t trust the government in this country. The job of law enforcement is not supposed to be easy. You’re supposed to have reasonable suspicion, probable cause, the burden is supposed to be there,” he adds.
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