WASHINGTON, DC — U.S. Senator Gary Peters (D-MI), Ranking Member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, led his committee colleagues in calling for an immediate investigation into the use of personal Gmail accounts and Signal chats by senior government officials to conduct official government business, including the transmission of sensitive and possibly classified information about military operations. Federal cybersecurity policy and records preservation laws prohibit the use of personal accounts or unsecure commercial platforms to conduct government business. The senators’ request follows revelations that key administration officials used Signal and its disappearing message features while communicating sensitive information about an airstrike in Yemen, and that national security advisor Michael Waltz and other National Security Council members used personal Gmail accounts to send messages related to military operations and weapons systems. Peters was joined in sending the letter by U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Rueben Gallego (D-AZ), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), and John Fetterman (D-PA).
“New revelations now show that senior Trump Administration officials have failed to adequately preserve government records and are actively using commercial platforms to communicate sensitive, national security information. In addition to the clear national security risks and apparent violations of federal records and other laws, this presents new potentially significant cybersecurity vulnerabilities,” wrote the senators. “As members of the Senate committee with jurisdiction over the management of government records and cybersecurity of federal agencies, we ask that you investigate potential unauthorized disposition of records associated with the reported use of personal Gmail accounts to conduct official business by national security advisor Michael Waltz and other National Security Council (NSC) members. We also request that you review and take appropriate actions to enforce laws governing the reported use of an automatic deletion mechanism on a Signal chat between the Vice President, agency heads, and other officials discussing government business.”
The senators continued: “Both of these commercial platforms have been regularly targeted by foreign adversaries and are not considered secure enough for communications on official government business or for classified information. In November 2024, the Federal Bureau of Investigation warned that, in addition to nation state actors from Russia and China, cybercriminals were also increasingly targeting personal email accounts. Both the Department of Defense and the National Security Agency have warned employees against using Signal, even for unclassified information, due to Russian hacking groups using a vulnerability in the application. An investigation is required not only to determine whether any federal laws were broken, but also because we do not know how frequently such platforms or associated automatic deletion mechanisms are being used by federal officials.”
The full text of the letter can be found here.
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