SignalGate: “This Chat’s Kinda Dead”
DOD IG has released the unclassified version of the report confirming what was clear months ago: Whiskey Pete Hegseth has no business leading DOD.
He was wildly uncooperative with the investigation, refusing to be interviewed, refusing to let DOD inspect his phone, refusing to turn over other threads.
But Whiskey Pete may not look quite as stupid as JD Vance.
You see, Whiskey Pete turned over the Signal chat that was left on his phone after all the autodeleting these scofflaws had been doing. Most of the thread was gone. But there was a single text that post-dated Jeffrey Goldberg’s departure from the list, something the Deputy General Counsel used to suggest the Atlantic thread might not be reliable (a claim DOD IG refused to put in the body of the report because, some people still refuse bullshit).
After Jeff Goldberg left the group, JD Vance said, “This chat’s kind of dead. Anything going on?”
One after another participant on the thread changed their ID, perhaps in hopes … I don’t know what they fuck they were thinking.
These are dumb people.
No one more so, though, than JD.
He comes across as the bored male teenager invited to these chats to keep the only girl who likes him happy.
#te
I wonder how many of those bored male teenagers are the type to practice the horror that is lamented in this Guardian article noting that 99% of the victims targeted are young girls: “The rise of deepfake pornography in schools: ‘One girl was so horrified she vomited’/” Not saying JD would be one, but wouldn’t be surprised to find the likes of him in that class of monsters.
Their own transcript shows him leaving the chat which tends to support that he was there.
heh.
After Vance’s post, the rest of the idiots scattered to the winds—probably thinking to themselves, “JD, you idiot…”
There’s a joke that for every group chat, there’s a second one that excludes the least liked person(s). I think we all know where JD Vance stands in his (supposed) friend group. Self awareness has never been the MAGA strong suit.
JD’s sugar daddy Thiel is probably overly self-aware, and self-absorbed.
Self-absorbed is not the same thing as self-aware. Thiel cares for no one but himself, and refuses to see what a debased human being that makes him.
Wonder if there was a John Dean in the group. Dean didn’t keep notes on Watergate because he was stupid but because he was smart. Everyone might get a pardon in three years but Congress will come calling and first one to turn over documents then get a pass on perjury traps.
My take on this DOD IG report is that it is a slap on the wrist for Hegseth and not as serious as it should have been. The IG did not investigate whether the declassification process was followed by Hegseth prior to him posting those messages in the group chat. While the report briefly provides background on the declassification process, it conveniently ignores this requirement in DoDM 5200.01, Volume 1, Enclosure 5, Paragraph 1.e: “Declassification does not authorize release of the information to the public. DECLASSIFIED INFORMATION SHALL NOT BE RELEASED TO THE PUBLIC UNTIL A PUBLIC RELEASE REVIEW AS REQUIRED BY REFERENCES (V) AND (W) HAS BEEN CONDUCTED to determine if there are reasons for withholding some or all of the information.” This part is so important in the manual that they used all caps. Does anyone think that a public release review was conducted?
Then, take this excerpt the report does include: “DoDM 5200.01 also states that classified information will be marked as declassified before it is handled as unclassified. Declassification markings are used to clearly convey the declassified status of the information and who authorized the declassification.” Logic would dictate that if the declassification process is not followed, then what the individual or individuals responsible are doing is mishandling classified information, not declassified information.
The argument that the DoD IG appears to be tacitly acknowledging by not addressing is that an Original Classification Authority (OCA) can never be guilty of mishandling classified information as long as they claim they declassified it, regardless of whether the process was followed.
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Why would the IG include the passage on proper declassification if they intended, as you say, to “tacitly acknowledg[e] by not addressing” it that an OCA remains guilt-free simply by *claiming* declassification without stipulating when, how, or why?
“Excuse me… that.. that’s my stapler.”
Sometimes I lose track of dates. Jeffrey Goldberg’s story published on March 24. JD is a clueless idiot.