When the Signal Houthi-plan-leaking group was set up, Witkoff was in Moscow

[muriel_volestrangler]

Two days later—Thursday—at 4:28 p.m., I received a notice that I was to be included in a Signal chat group. It was called the “Houthi PC small group.”

A message to the group, from “Michael Waltz,” read as follows: “Team – establishing a principles [sic] group for coordination on Houthis, particularly for over the next 72 hours. My deputy Alex Wong is pulling together a tiger team at deputies/agency Chief of Staff level following up from the meeting in the Sit Room this morning for action items and will be sending that out later this evening.”

The message continued, “Pls provide the best staff POC from your team for us to coordinate with over the next couple days and over the weekend. Thx.”
...
The principals had apparently assembled. In all, 18 individuals were listed as members of this group, including various National Security Council officials; Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s Middle East and Ukraine negotiator; Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff; and someone identified only as “S M,” which I took to stand for Stephen Miller. I appeared on my own screen only as “JG.”

Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff left Moscow in the early hours of Friday morning after reportedly meeting with Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin late on Thursday night, just hours after Russia’s de facto leader gave a cautious response to Washington’s proposed 30-day ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine.

https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2025/03/14/trump-envoy-witkoff-leaves-moscow-after-reported-late-night-meeting-with-putin-en-news

The BBC noted the timeline might include Witkoff in Moscow, and as far as I can tell, it does for the early part of the secret-sharing session. He'd left by the time Hegseth blurted "we're going in!!!!!!" , but the messages that the "next 72 hours" from Thursday were important were sent to Witkoff on a commercial app on his phone while he was in Moscow.

[ReRe]

1. I guess we're all Russians now?

Or will we be called Russo-Americans?

is going on? I DON'T WANT TO BE A FUCKING RUSSIAN!

[Seinan Sensei]

9. "I'd Rather Be A Russian Than A Democrat"

T-shirts on sale now, via Amazon

[ReRe]

11. If that's a joke, I don't get it.

Please interpret for me.

[Seinan Sensei]

12. No, seriously

Amazon has these very t-shirts for sale (as of posting). Jeff Bezos will sell you one for $15.99
Two Magats from Ohio had custom shirts made for a 2018 tRump rally. Their pic went viral.
It’s for real
Check Snopes
Check thehill.com

Can’t make this stuff up

[ReRe]

13. Oh. Thanks for the explain.

You threw me for a loop there for a minute. I think it would be apropos and more profitable if a t-shirt company (not Amazon) designed one that is red in color and read "I'd rather be a Russian than a Republican" and have Trump's mug shot.
Or heck, make it into a poster too!

[ancianita]

2. What this means is up for speculation.

Mine is that it could either be just two separate events, or, given the felon's history, he sends billionaire envoy to the Kremlin to get updated marching orders from the boss.

Thanks for the unsettling info. But what isn't these days.

[Irish_Dem]

3. Coincidences take a lot of planning.

ha ha separate events.

[ancianita]

6. lol I hear you. Yet the current occupant "weaves" his malicious plans with dirt dumb incompetence.

Gives different folks different things to distract them from America's destruction

[Irish_Dem]

7. Yes someone's plan has been quite successful.

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. My personal feeling it that it's just yet another cock-up, and a demonstration why phone apps should not be used

for classified communication, especially military operations. It's possible that Witkoff had done the sensible thing and left his phone in the USA, but I wouldn't trust any of these clowns to get something like that right. If any of them were qualified for the positions they held, they would have rejected the invitation to join the group, with a variation of the classic Stringer Bell (from The Wire) "is you takin' notes on a criminal fucking conspiracy??? What the fuck is you thinkin', man?" admonition.

[Irish_Dem]

4. Putin in charge of Trump's group of acting out adolescents.

[William769]

5. Go figure.

[Lonestarblue]

10. The use of such apps violates federal record-keeping laws.

I’m sure that was the purpose. No one in this administration wants anyone to know what they’re doing or to be able to record it for history. Most other agencies are likely violating the law with the same or a similar messaging app. As I recall, Kushner did the same to keep his communications secret during Trump’s first term. .