Washington — Shortly after it was disclosed that the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic had accidentally been included in a Signal chat among senior Trump administration officials discussing Yemen attack strategies, several officials began modifying or removing their Venmo accounts. At least one account remained public for a day following the Atlantic’s report.
Venmo, a mobile payment service operated by PayPal that enables users to quickly send and receive funds, also permits the public to view users’ contacts unless privacy settings are altered.
Experts in national security argue that such publicly available information could be manipulated by foreign intelligence agencies or other malicious entities.
As per screenshots acquired by CBS News, the Venmo friends list of White House national security adviser Michael Waltz remained accessible to the public as late as Tuesday, just a day after the Atlantic article concerning the Signal chat was released. By Wednesday, his account settings were updated to make his contacts private.
Waltz’s Venmo friends list included journalists, government officials, both active and retired military personnel, and members of Congress. There was no indication that Waltz had processed any payments on the platform.
Susie Wiles, President Trump’s chief of staff, appeared on Waltz’s Venmo friends list, but her account is currently unsearchable. After the publication reached out to the White House, Wired magazine reported on both Waltz’s and Wiles’ Venmo accounts, noting that both were made private following the inquiry.
“Venmo is a widely used application, and Mike Waltz has taken the necessary steps for his personal privacy protection,” stated NSC spokesman James Hewitt after CBS News contacted him on Wednesday.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has come under significant scrutiny this week for disclosing details regarding the Signal chat about the March 15 U.S. strike on Iranian-backed Houthis, maintained an account earlier in March, but it has since been deactivated, according to CBS News.
In February, reporters from The American Prospect, a progressive political and public policy magazine, discovered that Hegseth’s Venmo account had previously been left open for the public to view contacts stored in his cellphone who also had Venmo accounts. This included defense contractors, executives from UnitedHealth, fellow veterans, and colleagues from Fox News.
The Pentagon has yet to respond to CBS News’ request for comment.
Joe Kent, President Trump’s nominee to head the National Counterterrorism Center, was identified in the Signal chat as a contact for Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. His Venmo account was accessible to the public as of Thursday morning.
The office of the Director of National Intelligence has not yet responded to a request for comment.
Der Spiegel reported on Wednesday that private contact details for Waltz, Gabbard, and Hegseth had been exposed online. Journalists from the German news outlet managed to uncover mobile numbers, email addresses, and even some passwords belonging to senior Trump officials, with many of the numbers and email addresses still active.
On Wednesday, both Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe defended their involvement in the group chat during testimony before the House Intelligence Committee, which was focused on the global security threats facing the United States.
Gabbard acknowledged that the conversation was “sensitive” but asserted that no classified information was shared in the chat. “There were no sources, methods, locations, or war plans disclosed,” she stated to lawmakers. On Tuesday, Gabbard and Ratcliffe both expressed that they were not aware of any information discussed in the chat regarding weapons packages, targets, or timing. The Atlantic subsequently released more text messages on these subjects after officials in the chat repeatedly claimed that nothing shared was classified.
Messages revealed that Hegseth provided the senior Trump officials with specific details about the strikes targeting Houthi rebels earlier this month, including a timeline of when fighter jets were set to depart and the types of weapons that would be utilized.
Numerous U.S. intelligence officials and military personnel who spoke with CBS News this week maintained that this level of information is always classified. Even if it were somehow deemed unclassified, sharing such information would still violate cybersecurity and operational security protocols.
CBS News published unclassified internal documents from a National Security Agency bulletin on Tuesday, which warned about vulnerabilities associated with using the Signal app, despite its encryption. The NSA document was disseminated to employees a month before Waltz created the Signal chatroom.
The bulletin emphasized to NSA employees that third-party messaging applications like Signal and WhatsApp may be used for certain “unclassified accountability/recall exercises,” but not for disseminating more sensitive data.
NSA personnel were also cautioned against sending “any compromising information through any social media or Internet-based tool,” and were advised not to “form connections with unknown individuals.”
