He Signalgatethe scandal generated after the publication by the director of the magazine The Atlantic From an incredible article counting how the main plana of the US government discussed this month through a messaging group not certain the plans for the bombardment of Yemen and also included it by mistake, it has caused the First serious earthquake within the Trump administration. Without immediate consequences, but with scars, as the massive campaign launched from the White House reveals to remove iron from what happened, minimize the possible consequences and try to discredit Jefrrey Goldberg,the journalist. “It is the only two -month ruling,” the president assumed on Tuesday giving a touch of attention to those responsible.
When a few days ago he understood what was happening, Goldberg could not believe it “because it is completely incredible,” he said again and again on television. The National Security Minister, Mike Waltzhe put it in a group of the signal application. And for a few days he attended how all those responsible for the Government, except the president himself, discussed on his screen the military plans to attack the hutis, sharing obviously classified information about the Exact moment in which the bombings would beginhow would they be, with what weapons and what American troops were involved. How they celebrated it when the first bombs with emoticons of hearts, fires, biceps or the US flag were confirmed. But also how the vice president or the head of Defense lashed out ramked against Europe and even How JD Vance collided with Trump’s ideassaying that he was not “sure that the president is aware of the inconsistency of this with his current message about Europe” or the “additional risk of seeing a Moderate or severe increase in oil prices. I am willing to support the consensus of the team and keep these concerns for me. But there are solid arguments to delay this for a month, to inform about its importance, to analyze the economic situation, etc., “he said trying to stop the attack.
Given all that, the journalist thought he was a victim of some kind of deception, of a foreign power or even of the government itself, since Trump has it crossed. Yesterday when asked for the first time Trump said: “I don’t know anything about it. I’m not a fan of The Atlantic. It is a magazine that goes bankrupt. But I don’t know anything about it. “Goldberg feared it A trap to discredit it if I published something that was false. Or to demand it if I published something considered secret and that could endanger the safety of the troops. But not. Everything was real. The administration of the first nuclear power really argued these issues in a safe application, breaking protocols, probably laws, and with a witness journalist.
Immediate earthquake
The earthquake was immediate, with some shakes on the other side of the Atlantic, since the published conversations show the clear animosity that in private figures such as Vance or Hegseth show towards Europe, beyond their speeches in Brussels or Munich, provocative tweets or what they say in interviews for internal consumption. There is a rare, deep rage even in the face of the possibility of doing something that can be beneficial for NATO and EU allies. “I hate to rescue Europe again”Vance writes about how the military operation they plan could benefit European ships. “Vice President, I fully share your rejection of European opportunism. It is pathetic. But Mike is right: we are the only ones on the planet (on our side) that we can do this. No one else or closely,” says Hegesh in the conversation. Even one of the president’s closest advisors, Stephen Miller intervenes to say that we must explain quickly “to Europe what we expect in return. We must also determine how to enforce this requirement. For example, if Europe does not remunerate, then what? If the United States manages to restore freedom of navigation to a high price, It is necessary to obtain an additional economic benefit in exchange“.
In Washington, dozens of congressmen and senators demanded explanations and resignations. Television chains and newspapers open not only for the rocambolesco but also for the possible implications. Legal and political. Everyone has opined because it is a rocambolesco issue, but also because in the past, anything similar would have involved resignations, cessations and in -depth investigation, for example by the FBI, now directed by one of Trump’s most faithful squires, Kash pattel.
It is not ventured to say that Trump is today president because it was for the first time in 2017, and that happened not little extent because the publication that Hillary Clinton had consulted emails on a private server cost him perhaps the elections. With the director of the FBI, James Comey, opening two investigations, one of them two weeks after the elections. “It has to be a joke,” she wrote yesterday when reading the article in the magazine.
Aware of gravity, possible repercussions or that their high positions and especially Hegseth are on the tightrope, the administration has closed in band. The Secretary of Defense, exposed, lashed out Goldberg on Monday, saying that he was “a person who says a journalist, liar and very discredited. Someone who has dedicated himself to spreading bulos again and again, including, I don’t know, the bulos of Russia, Russia, Russia! So this is A guy who sells garbage. This is what it does. “The White House spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitthe has followed that same line, stating that “Jeffrey Goldberg is known for his sensationalist approach. No” war plan “was discussed. No classified material was sent to the group.” And heavyweights in matters is security or defense, such as the Republican Senator Lindsey GrahamThey recognized that it was a serious mistake, but trying to turn page. “This is a coordinated effort to distract the attention of successful measures taken by President Trump and his administration to pay the enemies of the United States and keep the Americans safe,” said the White House in a statement.
Trump’s related chains mockery
While chains related to the president, the same ones that for months whipped Hillary ClintonThey made fun of saying that it was nonsense, something that has happened to us all, President Trump defended his national security advisor, Michael Waltz, who created the chat, but with a touch of attention. “Mike has learned a lesson and is a good man,” he said in a telephone interview with NBC News on Tuesday. “The only two months failure and turned out that it was nothing serious”he wanted to settle blaming a member of the National Security Minister of the Material Error with the phone.
The implications, however, are very serious. This Tuesday, the Senate Intelligence Committee convened the director of the CIA, John Ratcliffeand responsible for national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbardboth members of that group of Signal. Gabbard, like the White House, said that “no classified information was shared,” although Goldberg clearly said that the Secretary of Defense had shared them and that they are in their possession. The CIA director tried to avoid responsibilities, saying that when he assumed the position of the messaging, he was already installed on his computer. But he took great care of his language and clarified that he had not shared classified information, but without going into whether the pentagon, through Hegesh, had done it. Gabbard, pressed by the Democratic senators, admitted that part of the Chat exchanges They took place when she was abroad, but did not answer whether she used her personal phone for those chats or one of the government, and insisted that in Signal no specific objective of the hutis was mentioned, but that there was a more general discussion.
Espionage Law
In any case, according to the 1917 Espionage Law, the National Defense Information does not have to be classified to consider that It puts the security of the country at risk. If the journalist shares the information that was in the group and those responsible have lied to legal consequences Serious. “As little was a careless, uncompromising and incompetent behavior,” reproached Virginia’s senator Mark Warner. “Just because they are irresponsible with the material, it does not mean that I will be so,” said Goldberg journalist on Tuesday about why he does not publish all the content of the chat if those responsible say there is nothing classified.
Gravity is evident, because as many experts and former high positions point out, The system is designed by default so that you can’t do things like this. Computers, telephones and devices that have classified information cannot have vulnerable applications. So to share military plans a group must be deliberately exported from one system to another. “Intentionally introduced highly classified information on an unqualified device. I would have lost my safety authorization in the Air Force for this and for much less,” said the Republican congressman Don Bacon. “I guarantee them, with 99.99 % of certainty, that Russia and China are monitoring those two phones. So I think it is a security violationand there is no doubt that Russia and China saw this a few hours after the attacks against Yemen or the Hutis. “