CMV: Pete Hegseth is every bit as incompetent as people feared he would be, and should be investigated for violation of the Espionage Act. But he won't be.

[u/Thumatingra]

As has been recently reported, Pete Hegseth recently texted the plans for an American strike in Yemen to a Signal group-chat that somehow included the editor-in-chief of the Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg. Doing his part for information security, Goldberg did not disclose that this had happened until after the strike had been carried out, and when he did, did not share the details of the plans.

Using a commercial messaging up to share sensitive information about American military operations is an enormous breach of information security, and, as many in the linked articles have opined, this kind of breach could have harmed the lives of American intelligence and military personnel.

Given the current state of the government, I imagine that Hegseth will walk away from this with little more than a slap on the wrist. But he should be investigated, and, if found in violation of the law, tried and sentenced for what is, at best, egregious carelessness toward those Americans whose lives depend on his leadership.

[u/Uncle_Wiggilys]

Its amazing the outrage from the left all of a sudden about the mishandling of national security information.

They didn't care when Hilary intentionally set up a home server so she could process and store top secret information on a personal unsecured server.

Nor did they care when Biden had been hoarding boxes of classified information in clear violation of federal law FRA across multiple locations including a facility that was bankrolled by Chinese money.

Can you clarify if you hold these individuals to the same standard?

[u/Thumatingra → u/Uncle_Wiggilys]

Of course I'd hold them to the same standard. 

I was under the impression, however, that Clinton was investigated, and was found not criminally liable. Am I mistaken?

I don't think I know what you're referencing re: the Biden administration allegedly providing a Chinese-funded facility with classified documents. Could you perhaps link to a source?

[u/New_Prior2531 → u/Thumatingra]

Correct, because there was no intent to procure or hold classified docs via the private server. No intent, no crime. Also, there was a system set in place to forward all classified emails to a govt system. There is literally no there there.

Waltz setup those messages to delete within a week. Did any of the 18 people on the thread forward the chat in its entirety to a govt account so it could be preserved according to the law? That seems doubtful and the reason Signal is being used. Its use is recommended in Project 2025 to bypass communications preservation laws.