March 27 (UPI) — U.S. District Judge James Boasberg on Thursday ordered Trump administration officials to preserve their controversial Signal app chat that discussed a pending military strike in Yemen.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the National Archives are subject to the order by Boasberg, ABC News reported.
The named Trump administration officials and the National Archives are named as defendants in a federal case filed by American Oversight, which describes itself as a non-partisan, non-profit watchdog that enforces the public’s right to government records.
American Oversight officials filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to ensure the Signal app chat record is preserved and not deleted as usually happens automatically on the encrypted app.
American Oversight attorney Benjamin Sparks said the chat record is in “imminent danger of destruction,” which caused Boasberg to order the Trump administration to file a sworn declaration affirming the record is preserved.
Boasberg gave administration officials until Monday to file paperwork showing the record is preserved and won’t be deleted.
American Oversight officials want the federal court to declare as illegal governmental use of the Signal app because deleting the messages violates federal record-keeping laws.
Boasberg said American Oversight officials are not seeking access to the Signal chat records but instead want to ensure they are preserved.
“The plaintiff here is not asking me to require the government to disclose the Signal communications,” Boasberg said. “Disclosure is not part of the suit.”
The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg on Monday disclosed he inadvertently was included in the high-level chat that discussed the pending March 15 U.S. military attacks on Houthi positions in Yemen.