It seemed odd to me from the beginning.
Why would one of President Donald Trump鈥檚 favorite aides invite one of his sworn enemies into a sensitive, at the very least, if not classified, discussion about a dangerous military operation?
A Signal messenger account under the name of National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, according to Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, extended an offer to him to 鈥渢alk.鈥�
鈥淚 said yes. And the next thing I know, I’m in this very strange chat group with the national security leadership of the United States,” Goldberg told .
Goldberg said he originally thought it was a hoax, but eventually realized it was real and ultimately left the group chat.
Did Waltz make a mistake?
Under withering criticism and scrutiny, Waltz took the blame. He told , “I take full responsibility. I built the group.”
But, he also said, 鈥�(Goldberg) wasn鈥檛 on my phone. And we鈥檙e going to figure out how this happened.鈥�
He confessed on Tuesday that he didn鈥檛 know how it happened.
Did a hostile foreign or domestic enemy hack his phone?
In February, the National Security Agency issued that read in part, 鈥淩ussian professional hacking groups are employing the 鈥榣inked devices鈥� feature to spy on encrypted conversations.”
鈥淭he hacking groups,鈥� the warning read, 鈥渆mbed malicious QR codes in phishing pages or conceal them in group invite links. After gaining access via the malicious code, the groups add their own devices as a linked device. This allows the group to view every message sent by the unwitting user in real time, bypassing the end-to-end encryption.鈥�
That took on significant importance Thursday when German publication that a team of its reporters found 鈥渢he contact data of some of those officials (who were on the group chat), including mobile phone numbers, is freely accessible on the internet.鈥�
The publication said the reporters used publicly available 鈥減eople search engines鈥� to find contact information for Waltz, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
Considering the NSA’s warning, the information Der Spiegel is reporting, and Waltz鈥檚 inability to explain how Goldberg got into his phone contacts, nefarious activity is looking like a very strong possibility.
Did someone Waltz knows try to embarrass him?
That is a very active theory among Washington security insiders. President Trump initially blamed a 鈥渟taffer鈥� for the breach. Even though Waltz indicated that wasn鈥檛 the case 鈥� was that actually what happened?
Several security sources I鈥檝e spoken to say it could very well have been either accidentally or deliberately done 鈥� landing Waltz and the entire group in very hot water.
The National Security Council鈥檚 investigation is ongoing, but I suspect there will be many others to come, as well.
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