Pool via AP
An investigation into Mike Waltz’s Venmo account on Wednesday showed that the White House national security adviser was “friends” with a number of journalists, including CNN anchor Brianna Keilar and MSNBC executive producer Lauren Peikoff.
Waltz found himself at the center of a major controversy this week after it was revealed that he had accidentally invited The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg into a top-secret Signal group chat about the Trump administration’s war plans in Yemen.
While the incident sparked a wave of backlash, it also prompted questions about Waltz’s relationship with Goldberg and why he was even in Waltz’s contact book to begin with, considering President Donald Trump’s less-than-friendly relationship with The Atlantic.
After being interrogated by Fox News host Laura Ingraham, Waltz denied having saved Goldberg’s number into his phone and claimed he had never even met the editor, despite the existence of photos that show the two men next to each other.
On Wednesday, Wired and the American Prospect published reports into more of Waltz’s contacts after it discovered that his Venmo account and friends list was set to public.
According to the news outlets, Waltz’s contact list included CNN anchor Brianna Keilar, CNN senior White House correspondent Kristen Holmes, MSNBC executive producer Lauren Peikoff, Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade, Fox News Digital editor-in-chief Porter Berry, NewsNation host Leland Vittert, and Judith Miller – the disgraced former New York Times reporter whose articles about supposed weapons of mass destruction in Iraq were found to be false and based on fake intelligence.
Waltz’s contact list also reportedly included “the apparent winner of the Miss Florida pageant,” according to the Prospect.
“Approximately ten minutes after requesting comment, Michael Waltz’s account disappeared from Venmo,” the Prospect reported, though not before taking screenshots of Waltz’s entire contact list.
