Sensitive documents, including blueprints of the White House, were inadvertently shared by U.S. government employees with thousands of federal workers, according to an initial report by the Washington Post. The incident involved staff from the General Services Administration (GSA), an independent agency responsible for the construction and preservation of government buildings. These employees mistakenly uploaded a Google Drive folder containing confidential files, making them accessible to all GSA staff, totaling over 11,200 individuals.
The misconfiguration occurred when the folder was uploaded with incorrect settings, as later revealed by a source to Axios after the Post’s story was published. This unintentional leak began in 2021 during the Biden administration, and it was only identified by the GSA’s IT team during a routine audit conducted last week. Among the documents shared was banking information for a vendor associated with a Trump administration press conference.
Further investigation by the agency’s IT team continues, as at least three documents were shared during the second term of the Trump administration, including one as recently as last week. A cybersecurity report has been filed in response to this incident, although the GSA has not commented on the matter.
While it remains unclear if any shared documents were classified, experts have emphasized the security risks associated with sharing such sensitive information, including White House floor plans. These documents, even if not formally classified, are considered to be closely guarded for security reasons. Former director of the Federation of American Scientists’ Project on Government Secrecy, Steven Aftergood, noted that if the documents included details like private passageways or security procedures, they could be classified under Executive Order 13526. This order, issued in 2009, establishes a system for classifying and protecting national security information.
This incident is the latest in a series of security challenges impacting the Trump administration. Last month, a Signal messaging chat involving senior Trump officials, including Vice-President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, was compromised. The chat discussed secret military plans for U.S. attacks against the Houthi group in Yemen, and the breach was first uncovered by Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of the Atlantic.
Subsequent to this, Hegseth faced further scrutiny when it was revealed that he had shared strike plans with family members in another Signal group chat. The New York Times reported on this, and the Guardian independently confirmed the existence of Hegseth’s private group chat. Top Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, have condemned these leaks as serious security blunders.