Judge orders Trump administration to preserve Signal texts on Houthi attack

A federal judge has made it official that the US government must keep the messages from a Signal conversation where top officials discussed plans to bomb Yemeni targets.

The accidental inclusion of a journalist from The Atlantic magazine in the discussion, which revealed sensitive military information, has since caused a national controversy.

Judge James Boasberg ruled on Thursday that the administration of President Donald Trump must follow all steps to maintain complete access to the conversation’s transcript between March 11 and March 15.

Concerns that the messages might be deleted, which would violate the federal records act, led to the judge’s decision.

The original messages, which were ultimately published this week in The Atlantic, were ultimately removed thanks to a temporary restraining order from a nonprofit organization called American Oversight.

The messages should be made known, according to the group. Additionally, The Atlantic pointed out that some Signal messages were scheduled to be deleted automatically, while others were scheduled to be within four weeks.

In a court filing, American Oversight’s attorneys wrote that this is “nothing less than a systematic attempt to evade the federal government’s rules for record retention.” There is no justification for this behavior, which prevents the public and Congress from seeing government actions.

The Federal Records Act of 1950, which establishes a model for government transparency, serves as the foundation for the nonprofit’s argument.

The law includes updated guidelines for preserving and releasing government documents as well as updated guidelines for preserving and releasing electronic documents.

However, according to American Oversight, the Trump administration may be using Signal, a messaging app with end-to-end encryption, to circumvent the law.

According to its court filing, “Defendants’ use of a non-classified commercial application even for such life-and-death matters as planning a military operation leads to the inevitable conclusion that defendants had to have used Signal to conduct other official government business.”

Judge Boasberg was given assurances from a Trump administration representative that the necessary steps had already been taken to gather and preserve any uncollected messages.

The Atlantic published the first of a number of articles on the subject from editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg on Monday, revealing Signal’s role in high-secret exchanges.

The journalist explained that he was invited to join a conversation on the app by a person who appeared to be Mike Waltz, the journalist.

When Goldberg accepted the invitation, he was greeted by some of the country’s highest-ranking officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Vice President JD Vance.

When, on March 15, the bombings that were revealed in the conversation occurred in real life, Goldberg claimed that he realized the conversation was genuine and not just an elaborate scheme.

In his opening article, Goldberg wrote, “I have never seen a breach quite this.” National security officials communicate via Signal frequently. However, the app is only used for planning meetings and other logistical issues, not for in-depth and highly private discussions of pending military action.

The Trump administration disputed that any private information had been made available during the discussion.

However, Goldberg responded with a second article that detailed the launch dates for the F-18 planes carrying the missiles as well as the bombing campaign’s timings.

At a Wednesday event, Trump said, “Look, look, it’s all a witch-hunt.” He has rejected requests for an apology or to dismiss Waltz and Hegseth. He also attributed Signal’s “could be defective” to the app.

On Thursday, Judge Boasberg’s decision to stop any destruction of the messages was praised by Chioma Chukwu, the interim executive director of American Oversight.

We applaud the bench’s decision by the judge to stop any more destruction of these significant records. The public is entitled to information on how war and national security are decided, and accountability doesn’t end with a message being automatically deleted, Chukwu said in a statement.