The Signal Chat: In Case you Missed the the War Plans, the Lawsuit, and the Memes

Absolutely no one should be surprised about the SCIF-level chat that occurred on private phones (Signal is disallowed on Federal phones) basically in public places. (Is the Kremlin considered a public place? Hmmnn.)

When you hire a group that is inept, anti-American, alcoholic, self-absorbed, and basically the worst possible choices (AND WITH THE CONSENT OF THE US SENATE - DON’T GET ME STARTED!!!) this is EXACTLY the outcome that should be expected.

No doubt that this was not their first Signal chat because dammit, it’s just too much trouble to follow the rules and protect the country. Not to mention that the NSA sent out a warning a month before the incident related to Signal vulnerabilities. Info. Of note, Signal’s response was that the vulnerabilities related more to phishing schemes than to their core technology.

What will happen? Nothing. they might make Mike Waltz the fall guy, but in reality, they’re all in on Signal, so this will happen again¹.

What can any of us do? Nothing. However, yesterday The Atlantic published the war plans, since they weren’t classified, per the culprits. A sample:

Call me crazy, but that looks like information that SHOULD be classified. And it’s not just me. Below is some information on how things are classified under CENTCOM Classification Guide. Note that “S” stands for “Secret” and “TS” stands for “Top Secret”.

In addition, there’s this gem:

What can the elected Democrats do? Keep making noise. There aren’t the votes to really do anything. Potentially, if they could find a few Rethuglican defense hawks in the House, they could put forth a discharge petition related to impeaching Pete “WhiskiLeaks” Hegseth and team, but it’s a heavy lift.

As an aside, Anna Paulina Luna (FL - new mom) is fighting to get a discharge petition to the floor that would allow new parents to vote remotely. The “Family Values, we need more kids” party is opposed to this - although she actually has the votes to bring it to the floor, and likely get it passed, but the power brokers are trying to (A) get legislators to rescind their sign-ons, and (B) pass a piece of legislation that would raise the threshold from a simple majority (50% + 1) to 2/3rds.

BUT

A lawsuit for declaratory and injunctive relief was filed on Wednesday by American Oversight, against:

• PETE HEGSETH, in his official capacity as Secretary of Defense, 1600 Pentagon 3E788 Washington, DC 20301-1600,

• TULSI GABBARD, in her official capacity as Director of National Intelligence, Washington, DC 20511,

• JOHN L. RATCLIFFE, in his official capacity as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, 1000 Colonial Farm Dr. McLean, VA 22101,

• SCOTT BESSENT, in his official capacity as Secretary of the Treasury 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20220,

• MARCO A. RUBIO, in his official capacities as Secretary of State and Acting Archivist of the United States, 2201 C St. NW Washington, DC 20520, and

• NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION, 700 Pennsylvania Ave. NW Washington, DC 20408

For:

This action arises from Defendants’ failure to meet their obligations under the Federal Records Act regarding messages from a group-chat discussion of planned and active military operations from March 11, 2025, through March 15, 2025, on the messaging application Signal, which can be set up to automatically delete messages. Full filing.

You knew a lawsuit would be filed. But what you couldn’t have guessed is that the judge to which it was randomly assigned is Judge James Boasberg. I’ll bet his name sounds familiar, right? Think “planes to El Salvador”. More info.

The crux of this case relates to making sure the records are retained, per the Federal Records Act (FRA), a request to order the AG to enforce the FRA, and…

Grant Plaintiff any other relief this Court deems appropriate.

This is a “set-up” lawsuit. The Signal chat is set to disappear in several weeks, and then there would be no proof for further lawsuits, criminal charges, nor evidence that could be leveraged by Congress if they decided to investigate².

There’s a Backstory

We all assume that they use their personal phones because it’s easier, and they’re lazy. But the reasoning for using Signal actually comes from Project 2025. Well, the training videos.

Project 2025 calls for using public channels of communication (like Signal) instead of secure government channels, to subvert FOIA requests and conceal damning information from the public. Despite our guts telling all of us that they were just stupid, this was no rookie mistake. It's the 2025 plan.

More information here. And you can watch the training video here.

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Still, there were a lot of fun memes. Don’t get me wrong, I take this very seriously. It’s a HUGE breach. It is a disaster going forward because they’ll do it again, and now the Russians, Chinese, North Koreans, Iranians and oh hell, everyone, knows who is compromised. And while Shitler thinks they’re okay to deal with, they all see us as the enemy. Not to mention the impact on our (former) allies who should be very hesitant to share intel with the clown car. But why miss a great snark opportunity?

I’ve put some of my favourites below. If I missed your pick faves, please put them in the comments.

I don’t know why everyone avoids Twitter:

And some good advice from Twitter:

Vegas nailed it:

Kids say the darndest things:

And finally, I think you can see the corollary:

1. I’m pretty sure using their personal phones, and Signal is their primary mode of communication.

2. Check out the movie The Big Easy with Dennis Quaid and Ellen Barkin for what happens when your evidence disappears.