1. United States
2. Pa.
3. Letter

President Trump, who tells innumerable, verifiable lies stated that nothing classified was disclosed in the chat exposed by Mr. Goldberg of The Atlantic. Given what has been made public and the reactions of people formerly in the National Security establishment, it is clear that: the parties involved (Pete Hegseth, Michael Walz, Tulsi Gabbard, John Ratcliffe, and others were having a discussion about national security matters in a platform run from insecure devices and outside the established channels of communication for the discussion of matters of this nature. This, in an of itself, could still violate the 1917 Espionage Act — under that law, what is known as national defense information does not have to be classified for its exposure to be damaging to the country’s security. This was a brazen, likely criminal, disrespect of the rules and all involved need to be made accountable. Whether or not the White House and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has approved the use of Signal for senior officials, the fact that phones are inherently insecure platforms remains. Once encrypted messages are received, they are unencrypted on the device so that the reader can make sense of them, meaning that they will be stored in the phone’s memory. Once the unencrypted information is there, it can be retrieved if the phone is lost, stolen, or taken by force. I urge you put pressure on the Armed Services Committee to demonstrate that our highest officials will suffer the consequences when the violate the laws and the processes established in our nation. Are we a nation of laws or is that is no longer true?