United States Security Counselor Mike Waltz is under increasing pressure from alleged negligence in security measures. After the role in Signalgate, in which he included a journalist by mistake in a group in the signal messaging app that discussed war plans, the counselor is now accused of leaving the account in the Open Venmo application.
The app has online payment function, similar to Paywal, but with social networking functions that allow users to enjoy and share posts. It is only available in the United States.
The story was initially revealed in the American magazine Wired. According to the report, a profile named “Michael Waltz”, with the photo of the counselor, was public in the app, which allows access to profiles of hundreds of people linked to him, such as military officers, lobbyists, journalists and others. Experts heard by the magazine say this would facilitate foreign intelligence services to spy on the counselor.
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More than 380 contacts from Waltz were exposed by the profile. Among the accounts linked to Michael Waltz are Susie Wiles, White House Chief of Staff, and Walker Barrett, US National Security Council official. The two were in the Signal group that is in the center of the Signalgate scandal.
According to Wiredthe profile was private after the report questioned the White House about the case. It is unclear whether the profiles actually belonged to the authorities.
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The White House did not comment on the case.
‘Signalgate’
Waltz was already under pressure after the case of “Signalgate”, revealed by a report from the magazine The Atlantic. The report showed that US security summit authorities discussed war plans in a group in the Signal Message application, which is not authorized by the US government to discuss confidential issues for the risk of being hacked.
Waltz would have mistakenly invited the chief editor of AtlanticJeffrey Goldberg, to participate. With Goldberg present, the authorities discussed the US attack on the Houthis in Yemen, held on the 15th.
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According to US newspapers, the counselor maintains the confidence of President Donald Trump, but other members of the White House press for his resignation. He took responsibility for the leak.
