Cabal Signals Classified Conflict (Updated)

Highest ranked leaders cavalierly use commercial chat app Signal to discuss a top secret imminent military attack on Yemen.

This describes a crime under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) and our governing law, the United States Codes (USC). Every single individual involved should be held legally responsible and accountable and charged with the crimes. Each broke OPSEC security mandates and they did so with egregious impunity.

The incompetent Trump Administration appointees were found having a “Top Secret” classified conversation on a publicly available commercial chat app, Signal.

Incredulous, I have to repeat that. Incompetent Trump Administration appointees were found having a “Top Secret” classified conversation on a publicly available commercial chat app.

The war planning meeting was to address an attack on Yemen. The attack was to happen in 2 hours. Yes, this war council’s meeting was held 2 hours before the United States actually dropped the bombs on Yemen. The Trump Administration invited an uncleared member of the press to the war council meeting. That was revealed by the inadvertently invited Editor-in-Chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg.

Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of the Atlantic, said he was added to a text group in which top US officials discussed plans to bomb the Houthi militia in Yemen. Photograph: AFP via Getty Images

This leadership example provided by the Secretary of Defense is abysmal. In fact, when presented with evidence of his actions, instead of taking accountability like a man of honor, he lashed out like a child.

Hegseth was demonstrably irate and got insultingly into the face of the reporter who questioned him. Hegseth then lied about it.

Unbelievably, the war planning meeting and widely distributed discussion was not held in a required secure, compartmented information facility (SCIF). The highly sensitive discussions themselves covered the U.S. attacks’ locations, timings, the weapons/bombs to be used, the delivery systems, the human targets, the sequence of the attack, and incredulously how cost recovery might be effected from Europe. CIA Director Radcliffe commented to Congress yesterday that no top secret information was divulged. I call BS. Radcliffe testimony will not hold up. He denied classified information was involved. The Select Committee Chair, Tom Cotton, rescued Radcliffe and Gabbard from perjury. He interjected words never said, throwing them a life line.

During blistering questioning by Senator Ossoff, Cotton interjected and distinguished “no classified information” which Radcliffe and Gabbard had sworn to up and down. Cotton redefined that to mean “no Intelligence Community (IC) classified information”. Right? RIGHT? (hint hint.) They both recognized they were semi-saved, and they grabbed that line with 4 hands.

The incompetent appointees illegally used the publicly-available private-sector app called “Signal”. Each participant knew their use of the commercial nonsecure Signal system was against their individual agencies’ guidance. The Signal app erases its information at set time intervals. For government employees in official correspondence and communication, this is illegal to do. Administration records must be permanent, and if not on a DOD system, those records must be moved to one within 22 days. This is very common knowledge. MolliesMom had this to say:

What’s clear to me in these messages is that this is their go-to form of comms which is patently illegal and 100% in violation of the presidential records act. This goes way deeper than just revealing classified information on personal devices. THESE PEOPLE ARE NOT QUALIFIED! They have no idea what kind of danger they are putting our country and our service members in. Russia and China, probably Iran and North Korea as well, know everything!

The guardrails are removed if a prosecutor does not bring charges against the cabal. Holding the Top Secret classified planning meeting on a non secure system is criminal negligence. Jeff Goldberg told us who was on the call. The senior level of our government is so involved:

• The Vice President of the United States,

• The Secretary of Defense,

• The National Security Advisor,

• The Director of National Intelligence,

• The Secretary of State,

• The CIA Director,

• The Middle East Negotiator,

• The Secretary of the Treasury,

• The White House Chief of Staff, and

• The White House Deputy Chief of Staff.

All of these people know that the publicly available Signal app is illegal for them to use in any official capacity. “What we have here is a failure to communicate” legally.

When confronted with this criminally negligent conduct, both the President and the Secretary of Defense used ad hominem response to discredit the source. They both, as their first comment, avoided the subject. They immediately spun into deflecting. In that, they expressed their extreme Consciousnesses of Guilt.

That guilt was all over their body, directing their demeanor, and masking little of their hair being on fire. Neither would speak to the security breach itself. The President said he had never heard of the accusation before. That is not credible. I hold that the veracity of his words is lacking.

His response defies credulity. It is implausible. Then in the next phrase the President attacked the credibility of the source, the Chief Editor of the reputable The Atlantic.

The Secretary of Defense, answering reporters questions, went directly into ad hominem response. He attacked the source vehemently to discredit that source, Goldberg, who has the conversation’s print-out receipts. Quote from Goldberg:

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.

You do want to see the liar Hegseth up close. Watch the deflecting dodge. Note the tongue-twisted serpent Hegseth spewing venomous lies as he gets louder and louder, madder and madder, and a little too fast. He spewed so far off topic: he was having trouble keeping up with the deferred maintenance left over from the Trump Administration. I can’t see how that is related.

Why deflect there? Because any deflection would suffice to shut the reporter up. I presume with so many brain cells killed, his brain had run out of coherent thoughts. HE KNEW HE BLEW IT RIGHT THERE. He said his final closing lie, said he wasn’t saying anymore, and he sprinted immediately away from the microphones. That should tell you all you need to know.

It appears to me that we have a conspiracy to cover up law breaking: Espionage Act violations, secrecy leaks, and improper records retention. To that add this the Executive Branch is issuing phones with the Signal app installed on them. This would be Trump thumbing his nose at the law. Again.

Heather Cox Richardson had this to say on that:

The decision to steer around government systems was possibly an attempt to hide conversations, since the app was set to erase some messages after a week and others after four weeks. By law, government communications must be archived.

In standard coverup mode, the President never acknowledged or said a word about the seriousness of the security breach. Of course, this particular convicted felon President would not lie, as we all know,…unless he was communicating. In that case—his communicating—we know full well that he is lying. This is what Professor Tim Synder at Yale had to say:

Using Signal enables American authorities to violate the rights of Americans. Signal is attractive not because it is secure with respect to foreign adversaries, which it is not, but because it is secure with respect to American citizens and American judges. The autodelete function, which Mike Waltz was using, violates the law. But what is most essential is the purpose of that law: to protect the rights of Americans from their government. The timed deletion function allows American officials to be confident that their communications will never be recorded and that they can therefore conspire without any chance of their actions being known to citizens at the time or at any later point. Everyone on that group chat, including the Vice-President, the Director of National Intelligence, the National Security Advisor, and the Secretary of State, knew that what they were doing was against the rules, the guidance, and the law. But they were doing what they were doing, I would suggest, for a reason: precisely because it allowed them or their colleagues to compromise the rights of Americans.

My opinion is not the final word, though I do research the law. The United States Code (USC) covers espionage and disclosure like this:

Title 18 USC Chapter 37 Section §793 Gathering, transmitting or losing defense information

(a) Whoever, for the purpose of obtaining information respecting the national defense with intent or reason to believe that the information is to be used to the injury of the United States, or to the advantage of any foreign nation, goes upon, enters, flies over, or otherwise obtains information concerning any vessel, aircraft, work of defense, navy yard, naval station, submarine base, fueling station, fort, battery, torpedo station, dockyard, canal, railroad, arsenal, camp, factory, mine, telegraph, telephone, wireless, or signal station, building, office, research laboratory or station or other place connected with the national defense owned or constructed, or in progress of construction by the United States or under the control of the United States, or of any of its officers, departments, or agencies, or within the exclusive jurisdiction of the United States, or any place in which any vessel, aircraft, arms, munitions, or other materials or instruments for use in time of war are being made, prepared, repaired, stored, or are the subject of research or development, under any contract or agreement with the United States, or any department or agency thereof, or with any person on behalf of the United States, or otherwise on behalf of the United States, or any prohibited place so designated by the President by proclamation in time of war or in case of national emergency in which anything for the use of the Army, Navy, or Air Force is being prepared or constructed or stored, information as to which prohibited place the President has determined would be prejudicial to the national defense; or

(b) Whoever, for the purpose aforesaid, and with like intent or reason to believe, copies, takes, makes, or obtains, or attempts to copy, take, make, or obtain, any sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, document, writing, or note of anything connected with the national defense; or

(c) Whoever, for the purpose aforesaid, receives or obtains or agrees or attempts to receive or obtain from any person, or from any source whatever, any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, or note, of anything connected with the national defense, knowing or having reason to believe, at the time he receives or obtains, or agrees or attempts to receive or obtain it, that it has been or will be obtained, taken, made, or disposed of by any person contrary to the provisions of this chapter; or

(d) Whoever, lawfully having possession of, access to, control over, or being entrusted with any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, or note relating to the national defense, or information relating to the national defense which information the possessor has reason to believe could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation, willfully communicates, delivers, transmits or causes to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted or attempts to communicate, deliver, transmit or cause to be communicated, delivered or transmitted the same to any person not entitled to receive it, or willfully retains the same and fails to deliver it on demand to the officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive it; or

(e) Whoever having unauthorized possession of, access to, or control over any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, or note relating to the national defense, or information relating to the national defense which information the possessor has reason to believe could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation, willfully communicates, delivers, transmits or causes to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted, or attempts to communicate, deliver, transmit or cause to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted the same to any person not entitled to receive it, or willfully retains the same and fails to deliver it to the officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive it; or

(f) Whoever, being entrusted with or having lawful possession or control of any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, note, or information, relating to the national defense, (1) through gross negligence permits the same to be removed from its proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of his trust, or to be lost, stolen, abstracted, or destroyed, or (2) having knowledge that the same has been illegally removed from its proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of its trust, or lost, or stolen, abstracted, or destroyed, and fails to make prompt report of such loss, theft, abstraction, or destruction to his superior officer—

Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.

(g) If two or more persons conspire to violate any of the foregoing provisions of this section, and one or more of such persons do any act to effect the object of the conspiracy, each of the parties to such conspiracy shall be subject to the punishment provided for the offense which is the object of such conspiracy.

Title 18 U.S. Code Chapter 37 § 798 says,

(a) Whoever knowingly and willfully communicates, furnishes, transmits, or otherwise makes available to an unauthorized person, or publishes, or uses in any manner prejudicial to the safety or interest of the United States or for the benefit of any foreign government to the detriment of the United States any classified information-

(1) concerning the nature, preparation, or use of any code, cipher, or cryptographic system of the United States or any foreign government; or

(2) concerning the design, construction, use, maintenance, or repair of any device, apparatus, or appliance used or prepared or planned for use by the United States or any foreign government for cryptographic or communication intelligence purposes; or

(3) concerning the communication intelligence activities of the United States or any foreign government; or

(4) obtained by the processes of communication intelligence from the communications of any foreign government, knowing the same to have been obtained by such processes-

Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both."

Title 50 USC Chaper 36 Subchapter VI § 1881h: Penalties for unauthorized disclosure (Text contains those laws in effect on March 24, 2025):

• 8 years in the slammer, and

• confiscate their phones.

In the aftermath, Goldberg watched Hegseth lie about it all. Then Goldberg made comments on MSNBC at this link. https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP82saYtE/

The Road Ahead. Trump already asked our military to shoot our citizens on the streets, “Can we shoot them in the legs?”), but the military refused. Now he plans to arrest protestors. You know about how far with this that Trump will go, but no one knows what will unfold. Grab a flashlight, because we are at a dark fork on this American road.

Understanding will become a bridge. We all should have affinity with that need. Thank you for finding my voice. You have given that place and meaning by just being here. That is real, heart-felt sentiment because I am still emotionally that little boy Army brat from Dothan, Alabama. I started first grade there in 1955, (but lived in Japan, Germany, Iran, and all over the U.S.). Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to help grow HotButtons.