Mike Waltz, Donald Trump’s national security adviser who is at the centre of the storm over a group chat which leaked highly sensitive military plans to a journalist, left his Venmo account open to the public, according to a new report.
The oversight represents a further security breach days after the news that Waltz added the editor-in-chief of the Atlantic to a Signal chat in which operational planning for a US attack on Houthis in Yemen was shared.
A Venmo account with the name “Michael Waltz”, which bore a picture of Mr Waltz, was visible to the public until Wednesday afternoon, Wired reported. Mr Waltz’s 328-person list of friends on the mobile payment service app included accounts that appeared to belong to Walker Barrett, a National Security Council staffer, and Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff – whose account was also public.
Both Ms Wiles and Mr Barrett were part of the Signal chat, news of which rocked Washington this week and led to Democrats to call for Mr Waltz and the defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, who shared timings of forthcoming air strikes and their results, to resign.
Mr Waltz said this week that he takes “full responsibility” for the debacle, contradicting a claim by Mr Trump that a “lower level” staffer was to blame.
Wired reported that many of the accounts linked to Waltz’s page belonged to “local and national politicians and political operatives”. Dan Crenshaw, a Republican congressman from Texas, was among Mr Waltz’s friend list, as were journalists including Bret Baier and Brian Kilmeade from Fox News.
After Wired approached the White House for comment, Mr Waltz and Ms Wiles’s accounts went private, the outlet said.
Last year Wired reported that JD Vance, then the nominee for vice-president, had left his Venmo public. His friend list revealed a host of connections including the people behind Project 2025, the right-wing plan for government that Mr Trump was forced to distance himself from during the campaign but which appears to have greatly influenced the direction of his second term in office. – Guardian
