Republicans Are Reportedly Using a Self-Destructing Message App To Avoid Leaks (theverge.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Trump administration members and other Republicans are using the encrypted, self-destructing messaging app Confide to keep conversations private in the wake of hacks and leaks, according to Jonathan Swan and David McCabe at Axios. Axios writes that "numerous senior GOP operatives and several members of the Trump administration" have downloaded Confide, which automatically wipes messages after they're read. One operative told Axios that the app "provides some cover" for people in the party. He ties it to last year's hack of the Democratic National Committee, which led to huge and damaging information dumps of DNC emails leading up to the 2016 election. But besides outright hacks, the source also said he liked the fact that Confide makes it difficult to screenshot messages, because only a few words are shown at a time. That suggests that it's useful not just for reducing paper trails, but for stopping insiders from preserving individual messages -- especially given the steady flow of leaks that have come out since Trump took office. As Axios notes, official White House business is subject to preservation rules, although we don't know much about who's allegedly using Confide and what they're doing with it, so it's not clear whether this might run afoul of those laws. It's also difficult to say how much this is a specifically Republican phenomenon, and how much is a general move toward encryption.

Comments

Hypocrites, criminals, and nihilists, oh no!

[xeno]

Hypocrites, criminals, and nihilists, oh noes! This is precisely what the electorate wanted, what they voted for, and now someone (anyone?) is surprised by it?

Hillary should be thrown in jail for the email server and Benghazi... but Trump's illegal hidden email and messaging servers? It's ok because yuge hackers and fake news.
Trump wiping his ass with the constitution as Bannon hands it to him sheet by sheet? No problem because Muslims and walls and Messicans! And a million uppity fat women in pussy hats!
Take a sledgehammer to American healthcare because they hate the black guy? No problem, because God helps the sick, and you know, Jesus loves tax cuts.

I weep for the nation. This is the childish petulant sonofabitch we deserve.

Re:That's becoming a meme

[Ol Olsoc]

Only democrat's claim there was nothing actionable, but ask the people been jailed for mishandling classified information if they feel the same?

I see. Name the specific law and the statutes involved and the punishments as prescribed by law. Also, give us the citations of the names of the people who are in jail for mishandling classified information. Up to the challenge, You can even use alternate truths as long as you cite them.

Re:Isn't this illegal?

[msauve]

"But.. Hillary's emails."

HRC didn't get in trouble for using a private email system. She got in trouble for letting classified information leak onto it, being disingenuous about it, and deleting information which was under subpoena.

Re:Isn't this illegal?

[msauve]

She deleted emails (or more correctly, perhaps, she directed that thousands of emails be deleted).

According to the [FBI] investigation report, top Clinton adviser Cheryl Mills told a PRN worker whose name was redacted in December 2014 that Clinton wanted her email to only be retained for 60 days, and instructed him to reset the retention policy on her email account.
But the individual told the FBI he realized that he had failed to do so until after The New York Times published its bombshell story revealing Clinton's private server and email use, prompting an "'oh s***' moment."

"In a follow-up FBI interview on May 3, 2016, (name redacted) indicated he believed he had an 'oh s***' moment and sometime between March 25-31, 2015, deleted the Clinton archive mailbox from the PRN server and used BleachBit to delete the exported .PST files he had created on the server system containing Clinton's emails," the report stated.

The mass deletion occurred after the March 2, 2015, Times story and after a March 3, 2015, preservation order from the House Benghazi Committee to retain and produce documents related to her email accounts.

-Clinton News Network

Documents are classified due to their content, whether marked or unmarked. Clinton received training and signed off that she understood this. "Intent" is not a condition for violating the laws governing document security, negligence is sufficient. Clinton broke laws which others have been prosecuted for. Go alt-fuck yourself.