Federal Judge Rejects Demand to Restore Deleted Signal Messages from Trump Officials
Judge Boasberg orders preservation of future Signal messages but declines demands to recover deleted past messages in a lawsuit over Trumpera national security chats .
A federal judge in Washington DC has declined to order former Trump administration officials to retrieve previously deleted Signal messages . However he did mandate that all future communications through the app be preserved . This ruling stems from a lawsuit filed by watchdog group American Oversight over the potential loss of official records .
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What the Judge Ordered
US District Judge James Boasberg issued a preliminary injunction requiring officials to notify the acting Archivist of any Signal messages that are still intact . However he declined to compel the recovery of messages that had already been deleted via the apps autodelete feature . Boasberg found that American Oversight had not provided sufficient evidence to prove the inadequacy of existing federal records systems or that the court had the authority to recover lost content .
Legal Arguments on Federal Records Law
American Oversight claimed that senior Trumpera officials violated the Federal Records Act by using Signal for governmentrelated communication . Signals autodelete functionality they argued undermines transparency and the legal preservation of records . The lawsuit named several highprofile figures including former Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard CIA Director John Ratcliffe Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Secretary of State Marco Rubio .
The Chat Incident & Military Details
At the “Heart of the case is a Signal group chat from March 2025 in which officials allegedly discussed military strikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen . Detailed information about targets and operations was reportedly shared . A major breach occurred when journalist Jeffrey Goldberg was accidentally added to the group sparking intense scrutiny and a Pentagon investigation .
Partial Victory for Transparency Advocates
While the judge denied retroactive recovery he acknowledged the risk of ongoing deletion of federal records . He wrote “The looming erasure of automatically deleting Signal messages qualifies as imminent destruction of records .” American Oversights legal director Chioma Chukwu called the decision a step forward and warned of additional legal actions if compliance falters .
Broader Implications
The case has amplified concerns about the use of encrypted apps for sensitive or classified discussions . Although officials deny sharing classified materials the episode has prompted congressional inquiries and an internal Pentagon review underlining the need for stronger digital records policies in government .