Trump White House Staff Use of ‘Disappearing’ Messaging App Violates Presidential Records Act

Staffers Fearful of Being Accused of Leaking in White House Flooded by Leaks

White House political appointees, staff, and other Trump administration officials have been using the messaging app Confide, which would be in violation of the Presidential Records Act, (44 U.S.C. Chapter 22). The use of the “disappearing” messaging app is an apparent effort to avoid being accused of leaks to the media and others, which have bedeviled and angered the President as well his senior advisers.

First reported by the web publication Axios February 8 and Monday by the Washington Post, staffers are using Confide, a three-year-old chat app that encrypts messages end-to-end, meaning only the sender and recipient can read them. In the interview with Axios, Confide’s co-founder and chief product officer Jeff Grossman told the news site that the app uses its own encryption protocol, which is similar to the PGP standard many people have used for their emails. Jon Brod, another co-founder and the company’s president, noted that by default the app deletes messages after they are read. “We immediately delete them from our servers and wipe them from the device,” he said. 

According to a source inside the administration who spoke with NCRM Tuesday, there is a perpetual state of chaos and infighting that, coupled with leaks to media outlets, has created a sense of fear of discovery and paranoia among the staff. Those leaks in turn have exasperated the president. Trump has ordered an investigation into the sources of those stories, including his phone calls with foreign heads of state, that have been widely reported. 

On Tuesday, in an apparent attempt to change the national conversation of the Michael Flynn scandal, President Trump posted this tweet:

The Post further reported, “The chaos and competing factions that were a Trump trademark in business and campaigning now are starting to define his presidency, according to interviews with a dozen White House officials as well as other Republicans.”

The use of any apps which offer message destruction such as Confide, Telegram, Signal, and Snapchat, (also offers ephemeral messages), appears to be a violation of the Presidential Records Act (PRA) of 1978, 44 U.S.C. ß2201-2209, which governs the official records of Presidents and Vice Presidents created or received after January 20, 1981. In particular § 2209, the disclosure requirements for official business conducted using non-official electronic messaging accounts:

(a) In General- The President, the Vice President, or a covered employee may not create or send a Presidential or Vice Presidential record using a non-official electronic message account unless the President, Vice President, or covered employee–

(1) copies an official electronic messaging account of the President, Vice President, or covered employee in the original creation or transmission of the Presidential record or Vice Presidential record; or

(2) forwards a complete copy of the Presidential or Vice Presidential record to an official electronic messaging account of the President, Vice President, or covered employee not later than 20 days after the original creation or transmission of the Presidential or Vice Presidential record

Axios spoke with “one influential GOP operative” who told them that he favored the fact that Confide makes it harder to take a screenshot—”you have to slide your fingers over text and it only captures a portion of the screen,” Axios reports. He also likes the integration with iMessage, allowing him to write self-destructing encrypted messages within the confines of the iPhone’s standard-issue messaging platform.

He added that Republicans like him are especially paranoid about their communications after Hillary Clinton’s email scandal. “For folks that are on the inside in this city, it provides some cover,” he said.

A White House spokesperson declined to comment Tuesday afternoon on the Axios and Post stories.  The administration official who spoke with NCRM Tuesday said he wasn’t shocked by the staff use of the apps, and wryly noted that with the level of ignorance that “runs rampant in the West Wing and Old EOB,” [Eisenhower Executive Office Building] regarding what is permissible and legal governing staff actions, coupled with the “chaotic paranoid atmosphere surrounding this president,” the use of apps that appear to violate the law is “almost to be expected.”

Brody Levesque is the Chief Political Correspondent for The New Civil Rights Movement.
You may contact Brody at Brody.Levesque@thenewcivilrightsmovement.com

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