Venmo Accounts of Trump Officials Found to be Publicly Visible

WIRED has discovered that several high-ranking Trump administration officials have Venmo accounts with publicly visible transactions and contacts. This includes Dan Katz, chief of staff at the US Treasury, Joe Kent, President Trump's nominee for director of the National Counterterrorism Center, and Mike Needham, counselor and chief of staff to the secretary of state.

Experts warn that this information could be used by foreign intelligence services to gain insight into the officials' social networks or identify individuals who could be targeted. Tara Lemieux, a 35-year veteran of the US intelligence community, notes that public transactions on Venmo might appear harmless, but foreign intelligence services look for patterns: who's paying whom, how often, and when.

Morgan Ortagus, a former Fox News personality and deputy to Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump's special envoy for the Middle East, also appears to have left Venmo data exposed. The Treasury Department, the National Counterterrorism Center, and the State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Venmo's contact syncing feature allows users to upload phone contacts to the app, automatically populating their friends list with anyone in their address book already using the platform. However, unless users proactively change their privacy settings, their network remains visible to anyone.