The National Security Council (NSC) has clarified reports that National Security Advisor Michael Waltz and his staff used personal Gmail accounts for government communications.
According to the Washington Post, one of Waltz’s senior aides used Gmail “for highly technical conversations with colleagues at other government agencies involving sensitive military positions and powerful weapons systems relating to an ongoing conflict,” according to the piece.
“While the NSC official used his Gmail account, his interagency colleagues used government-issued accounts, headers from the email correspondence show,” according to the newspaper.
The piece comes a week after Waltz accepted responsibility for one of his employees accidentally adding The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg to a sensitive Signal conversation with other officials, including Vice President JD Vance.
On Tuesday, NSC spokesperson Brian Hughes told Fox News that the Post report was an attempt “to distract the American people from President Trump’s successful national security agenda that is protecting our nation.”
“Let me reiterate, NSA Waltz received emails and calendar invites from legacy contacts on his personal email and cc’d government accounts for anything since January 20th to ensure compliance with records retention, and he has never sent classified material over his personal email account or any unsecured platform,” according to Hughes.
Hughes stated that he was unable to verify the Post’s report on the senior NSC official because the journalist “refused to share any part of the document reported.”
“Any correspondence containing classified material must only be sent through secure channels and all NSC staff are informed of this,” an official stated. “It is also made clear to NSC personnel that any non-government correspondence must be captured and retained for record compliance.”
Last week, President Donald Trump told a room full of reporters that he believes Waltz is “doing his best,” and that he does not blame him for the Signal leak.
“I do not think he should apologize,” the President stated. “I believe he is doing his best. The equipment and technology are not perfect.”
“And, probably, he will not be using it again, at least not in the very near future,” he said.
