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Real Analysis

DEVELOPING: Was President Trump's National Security Advisor a Source for Jeffrey Goldberg While Serving on the House Intel Committee? | JP

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I keep saying it: this fiasco over Jeffrey Goldberg’s improper inclusion in the now infamous Signal App chat thread regarding U.S. strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen — just keeps getting weirder.

At first, I was truly convinced it was a 4D Chess Op planned by the Trump Administration to telegraph their unhappiness with Europe freeloading on America’s security guarantees, while trolling the Left-leaning media in the process.

That could still be the case.

But then, today, as we reported the updated headline changes in The Atlantic, apparently reflecting an attempt to backtrack from the initial accusations regarding ‘leaked war plans’…

I stumbled on Mike Waltz directly contradicting President Trump.

My first take was that Waltz was simply adding clarity to the situation that happened within his office, meaning President Trump wouldn’t have had the same degree of personal insight into the event.

The day before, the President specified that it wasn’t Mike Waltz who personally invited Atlantic journalist Jeffrey Goldberg to the high-level Signal chat.

According to President Trump, it was actually a staffer — which makes sense that President Trump would assume that, given that Mike Waltz did admit that ‘he’ created the group chat to begin with.

But after Mike Waltz came out openly taking responsibility, and yet denying it was a staffer who did it, my assumption was that President Trump likely just assumed it was a staffer; after all, guys at Mike Waltz paygrade have better things to do than build group chats for team updates.

I still think that is likely why President Trump made that assertion yesterday, as we reported in this story earlier:

UPDATE: President Trump Reveals Who Was ACTUALLY Behind Signal ‘Leak’

But then I found Mike Waltz making the confident assertion on Fox News with Laura Ingraham that it was actually not a staffer.

During that conversation, Waltz alluded to some possible technical intrigue that may have allowed Goldberg to gain access to the chat.

Here’s that conversation:

As I then reported, everything seemed to indicate that either someone manipulated Mike Waltz’ phone contacts so that Jeffrey Goldberg’s actual contact would be added to the chat, though it would appear an appropriate person had been added instead…

Or, someone manipulated Waltz’ contacts through remote technical means for the same purpose.

Now, it seems possible that there may be another explanation.

And as much as I hate to cast anyone in President Trump’s administration in a bad light, considering all the great changes and success that has been accomplished by the administration…

The fact is, this is a very plausible scenario.

But I want to stress that this is neither confirmed, nor is it being comprehensively reported by ANY mainstream sources at the moment.

I am treating this just as I have all the other possible scenarios that could potentially be the reason a Trump-hating journalist was allowed to access a high-level Trump administration group chat; possible, but not confirmed.

So here’s the new twist.

One investigative journalist, Paul Sperry who is a New York Post columnist as well as a senior reporter with Real Clear Investigations, is making a serious claim, bringing into question Waltz’ denials about Goldberg’s contact info being in his phone to begin with.

Sperry is claiming that an unnamed U.S. intel official has disclosed that Waltz was actually a source for Jeffrey Goldberg while Waltz was still a Congressman and serving on the House Intel Committee.

If true, this is terrible news for the Trump Administration at a time when there have been very few — if any — black marks during the first few months of the administration.

In a follow-up post, Sperry also shared his findings about Waltz’ previous monetary donations to anti-Trumpers… with $0 going to President Trump from Waltz’ own pocket.

He also points out that Waltz was an aide to Dick Cheney, which doesn’t help his case at all.

While this is all either circumstantial or unconfirmed due to its reliance on anonymous sources, it would also fit with the reporting that President Trump was ‘p*ssed’ at Waltz.

Not just for apparently including Goldberg in the chat, but that he had Goldberg’s number in his contact list to begin with.

That is the situation as being reported by the Independent:

President Donald Trump was reportedly upset at National Security Adviser Mike Waltz for accidentally adding a journalist to a group chat between top national security officials about a military operation – but he was also allegedly upset that Waltz had the journalists’ phone number saved to begin with.

In public, the president defended his national security adviser for the blunder, calling him a “good man” who “learned his lesson” and would not face termination for the mistake.

But behind closed doors, the president was “p***** that Waltz could be so stupid” to add Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, to the group chat, one person told Politico.

Trump was allegedly angry that Waltz had Goldberg’s number saved to begin with, a person familiar with the situation told Politico.

I have no way of validating if any of that information is true or accurate; it all hinges on that sneaky ‘anonymous source’ that could just as easily be a fabrication, or a Deep State intel operation to plant false information.

It could even be that this is all true… and yet Goldberg himself truly wasn’t ‘in’ on the plan to get him access.

After all, the Deep State tends to operate along the same lines as the intel community, considering they are often one and the same.

So Goldberg could have truly been clueless as to why he was added to the group, which would seem to account for his curiosity about no one seemingly noticing his presence, or the fact that he left when he did.

It is very hard to verify an anonymous source… which is why I loathe including any reporting that hinges on them.

But this story is starting to gain traction, and I want to make sure our reporting keeps up with the current information.  And so I’m reporting this as just one more possible scenario, given that Paul Sperry is not some two-bit Trump-hating reporter.

This story is actually quite plausible, regardless of the circumstantial nature of the information that is actually verifiable.

Take for instance this photo that Sperry shared from another reputable journalist, Anna Bower.

This seemingly contradicts Waltz claim to have ‘never met, don’t know, never communicated with’ Jeffrey Goldberg:

It is quite possible that the two happened to be at the same event, and still never crossed paths or interacted.

And yet, the particular event at the French Embassy in DC was actually MODERATED by Jeffrey Goldberg.

That may be circumstantial… but it certainly isn’t nominal.

In reviewing the White House’s specific messaging surrounding their handling of the incident over the last few days, I’m starting to look at their focus on ‘reviewing’ how Goldberg was added to the group in a new light.

There has consistently seemed to be a question as to the exact actions that led to Goldberg’s inclusion in the group chat.

Even as the White House highlighted early on that Goldberg’s inclusion in the chat was “a mistake”, as noted by NBC News:

The White House said Monday it was reviewing how the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine was accidentally added to a group text in which people who appeared to be members of President Donald Trump’s administration discussed plans to launch airstrikes against Houthi militants in Yemen.

“At this time, the message thread that was reported appears to be authentic, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain,” the National Security Council said in a statement.

The statement came in response to an article published Monday by The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, a veteran national security and foreign affairs journalist. Goldberg reported he had been added to a group chat called “Houthi PC small group” on March 13 via Signal, an encrypted messaging service widely believed to be more secure than other commercial texting applications.

In the article, Goldberg described his initial skepticism, recalling that he discussed with colleagues whether the texts were “part of a disinformation campaign, initiated by either a foreign intelligence service, or, more likely, a media-gadfly organization” seeking to embarrass journalists.

Even if this information being shared by Sperry’s anonymous intel source proves accurate, and it turns out that Mike Waltz was indeed feeding information to the likes of anti-Trump Goldberg from his seat on the House Intel Committee, I find it very unlikely that Goldberg’s inclusion in this recent chat was intentional on the part of Mike Waltz.

That doesn’t excuse the allegations that Waltz may have actively aided an anti-Trump Deep State media hack back in the day.

And if true, I find it highly unlikely that Waltz will actually whether this storm.

The truth is going to come out, and if this is the truth… Waltz will be forced to step aside.

Unfortunately, it could be that Mike Waltz had once sided with those RINOs who had it out for President Trump… only to have a revelatory change of heart at some point, allowing President Trump to put his trust in him as a National Security Advisor.

If so, it is unfortunate that Waltz’ alleged past mistakes brought to light by Paul Sperry ended up coming back to bite him.

That said… the circumstantial evidence piling up against Waltz is continuing to grow, including this bit of information shared this afternoon by Sperry:

I want to trust Mike Waltz; I really do.

But the tentacles of the Deep State are long, and dangerous.

It would not be the first time a bad actor infiltrated President Trump’s inner circle expressly to cause damage and thwart his Presidency.

And in re-watching Mike Waltz’ discussion with Laura Ingraham, I have to wonder… if he’s willing to lie about having ever met Goldberg, what else is he lying about?

I want to reiterate that this is all circumstantial and based on anonymous reporting.

And unless there are solid verifiable facts brought to light, or he admits that this is all true, I am hoping and praying that none of it is even remotely true.

I would rather find out that Deep State hacks within the CIA manipulated Waltz’ contact list, anticipating that a specific contact would eventually be included in a sensitive high-level conversation.

But unfortunately, where there is circumstantial smoke… there is often literal fire.

And I’m not so sure this fire isn’t going to take President Trump’s National Security Advisor down in flames, even if it is for his past mistakes in aiding someone like Jeffrey Goldberg.

This is a developing story, and we will bring you more information as it becomes available.





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Las Vegas News Magazine

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