New revelations are complicating the White House effort to close the book on the firestorm that erupted when senior administration officials were caught using the Signal messaging app to share plans about a military strike in Yemen.
Congressional Democrats returned to the issue Wednesday amid media reports that national security adviser Mike Waltz, who was already under intense scrutiny for adding a journalist to the Yemen chat, had repeatedly discussed sensitive issues on apps outside the government’s control.
Concerns Over Communication Methods
On Tuesday, The Washington Post reported that Waltz and one senior unnamed aide conducted some government business over personal Gmail accounts, including exchanging messages about schedules and work documents — information that can be exploited by foreign intelligence services.
Less than 24 hours later, POLITICO reported that Waltz’s team set up at least 20 Signal group chats to coordinate official work on issues including Ukraine, China and Gaza, and repeatedly discussed sensitive information.
Response from Congress
Congressional Democrats are fuming at the news, renewing their push for accountability and a change to government communications policies. Lawmakers and experts have raised concerns that use of Signal and Gmail for official business may violate federal records-keeping laws.
“In under 10 days, we’ve heard about journalists added to unclassified chats and sensitive data being shot around on personal emails,” Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chair Mark Warner (D-Va.) posted on X Wednesday. “And now we’re hearing there’s dozens more chats. It’s a never-ending parade of sloppy, reckless incompetence.”
Security and Accountability
These new concerns follow a week of outrage over a report published by The Atlantic, which showed messages sent between President Donald Trump’s top officials, including Waltz, Vice President JD Vance, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, discussing the timing and location of U.S. airstrikes in Yemen.
Warner’s counterpart, House Intelligence Committee Chair Jim Himes (D-Conn.), argued in a statement Wednesday that Waltz’s use of a Gmail account to send emails and calendar invites shows that “the Signal chat debacle was not, as the Trump administration claimed, one embarrassing mistake.”
Call for Action
Members of Congress intensified their criticism of Waltz after POLITICO published its report on the national security adviser’s additional Signal group chats. House Oversight and Reform ranking member Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) tweeted Wednesday that Waltz “needs to be as far away from our nation’s secrets as humanly possible.”
This is not the news that the Trump administration was hoping for after days of trying to move on from Signalgate.
Moving Forward
The White House is desperate to move on from the controversy. White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told reporters Monday that the “case has been closed here at the White House.” She added that “there have been steps made to ensure that something like that can obviously never happen again, and we’re moving forward.”
Responding to the Post’s reporting, Brian Hughes, a spokesperson for the National Security Council, called it the “latest attempt to distract the American people from President Trump’s successful national security agenda that’s protecting our nation.”
Hughes did confirm that Waltz “received emails and calendar invites from legacy contacts on his personal email and cc’d government accounts for anything since Jan. 20 to ensure compliance with records retention.” He stressed that Waltz “has never sent classified material over his personal email account or any unsecured platform.”
Security Concerns and Recommendations
But the use of a personal Gmail account to discuss sensitive government information, even below the classified level, is risky, because the email server does not have the same level of robust safety features that government systems have. Users affiliated with the U.S. government have also frequently been targeted by hackers.
Both Signal and Gmail have relatively strong internal security features, but experts say more secure government communications methods exist and should be used instead.
Conclusion
Not all lawmakers share the same level of concern about security vulnerabilities of using publicly available apps. Republicans argue that the issue is being overblown, while Democrats emphasize the need for accountability and secure communication methods.
As the debate continues, the spotlight remains on the White House’s communication practices and the ongoing efforts to address security and accountability concerns.
