The blog Washington Post reported yesterday, Tuesday, that US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz had been using his personal Gmail account for official correspondence.
The scandal comes a week after a major security breach rocked the White House, also involving Waltz. Waltz mistakenly added a journalist to a highly confidential group chat he had created on the Signal app to coordinate strikes against the Ansar Allah (Houthis) group in Yemen.
Tuesday, Washington Post pointed out that Google's Gmail email service was less secure than the Signal app, which offers message encryption.
According to the newspaper, Waltz – at the heart of this scandal now known as SignalGate – used his personal Gmail account to share official, though non-sensitive, information such as his daily schedule and other work-related documents.
In contrast, one of his colleagues allegedly used Gmail for "highly technical conversations with colleagues from other administrations, concerning sensitive military sites and powerful weapons systems linked to an ongoing conflict," according to Washington Post.
The newspaper said it relied on interviews with three officials and emails sent from Waltz's office.
However, the national security adviser quickly denied any leak of confidential information.
In a statement, National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes said Waltz "never sent any classified documents to his personal email account or to any unsecured platform."
Before the revelation of this new affair, Caroline Leavitt, spokesperson for the president Donald Trump, had reacted to the question of the SignalGate, stating that "the matter is closed and the president continues to have confidence in his national security adviser."
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump accused his rival Hillary Clinton of using her personal email address instead of a secure government server for official correspondence while she was Secretary of State between 2009 and 2013.
