Some Trump administrative officials suspected of holding secret discussions on the open message platform in the past condemned the misinterpretation of secret notes by others, including former President Joe Biden and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
National security advisor Mike Waltz and State Secretary Marco Rubio have called for “consequences” for individuals who incorrectly share secret material, regardless of their intentions. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth lambasted Biden because of the “error of handling” secret documents and suggested that if he behaved the same, he would be expected to be a “military court.”
The language of the punishment that has been used by senior officials who have been used by previous protocol officials in handling sensitive material adding a layer of irony to what experts mention the misuse of confidential information that does not make sense.
John Cohen, a former National Security Officer in Republican and Democratic administration, said, “From a security perspective, there is no scenario that justifies this type of information discussed through a communication platform controlled by non-government.”
National security advisor Mike Waltz and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth spoke as President Donald Trump met French President Emmanuel Macron at the OVAL office at the White House in Washington, February 24, 2025.
Brian Snyder/Reuters
“Communicating sensitive and operational information in this way increases the possibility of inappropriate disclosures that put risky military personnel,” said Cohen, who is also an ABC news contributor. “There will also be questions about whether it violates the law governing the security and retention of government information.”
Recently, many of these senior administrative officials have many things to say about an investigation for a year of handling the secret material of Biden. Investigations did not result in any accusations.
In January 2023, Hegseth, from “fox & Friends Weekend “Co-host, appearing on Fox News and mentioning the act of Biden” evil, careless and stupid. “
“If the top people at the job handle this secret document with a reckless for that time, why is that the problem? Is it really true that he doesn’t know? When did you take something from SCIF [Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility] If you are a senator, you know exactly what you are doing. You have to sneak out, “he said. The report includes boxes of boxes, including one that is damaged containing secret materials, including documents about Afghanistan found in the Biden House Garage in Delaware” near the collapsed dog coffin, dog beds, a zappos box, empty bucket, damaged lamps with tapes, and tapes, and tapet taper, and taper, and taper, and tape.
In January 2023, Rubio, also appeared on Fox News, where he said, “Every time the document has been deleted from the right settings – that’s a problem, I don’t care who did it.”
During his term of office as the Secretary of the State, Clinton got a controversy using a private email server for official public communication rather than using an official Department of Foreign Department’s email account managed on the Federal server. The way many officials react have re -haunted them.
In 2016, Hegseth told Fox News, “If it is someone else besides Hillary Clinton, they will be in prison now … Because the assumption is in the intelligence community, if you use an unclassified method, it is possible that foreign governments are targeting the account.”
React to the Politico article about Clinton, Waltz, who seemed to add Jeffrey Goldberg, Atlantic Editor in Chief, to a signal chat, criticized the Department of Justice for handling the situation.
“Biden’s national security advisor to sit, Jake Sullivan sent secret messages to Hillary Clinton’s personal account. And what did Doj do about it? Not a problem,” Waltz said.
In January 2016, Rubio also appeared in Fox News, demanding Clinton to be held accountable.
“Nothing is above the law … people will be responsible if they violate the law of this country,” he said.
In August 2022 Stephen Miller, now Trump’s Deputy Chief of Staff for policies who are also in the signal chat group, also posted his thoughts about X which reacts to Clinton’s email scandal.
“One point that is not enough to be made about Hillary unsafe server is used to do a state business (clearly made to hide a corrupt fee from Clintons): Foreign enemies can easily hack secret operations secret “Intel in real time from the other side of the world,” he said.
Only two weeks ago, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced a strong action on leakage in the intelligence community.
“Every release of confidential information that is illegitimate is a violation of the law and will be treated like that,” he said in a press release.