A federal judge ruled Thursday that the Trump administration must preserve records of a text message conversation where senior national security officials discussed sensitive details about a U.S. military strike on Yemen’s Houthis.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg announced that he will issue a temporary restraining order preventing officials from deleting messages sent through the encrypted app, Signal. The order comes after a request from the nonprofit watchdog group, American Oversight. A government attorney confirmed the administration was already working to gather and store these messages.
The entire Signal conversation was published by The Atlantic on Wednesday. The discussion included top officials like Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, National Security Adviser Michael Waltz, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Vice President JD Vance, and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. In the chat, Hegseth shared the exact timings of warplane launches and bomb drops before the strike against the Houthis began earlier this month. He also detailed when a “strike window” would open, the location of a “target terrorist,” and when weapons and aircraft would be used.
American Oversight filed a lawsuit to make sure these records are kept in line with the Federal Records Act. The group believes officials regularly use Signal for official communications.
“Defendants’ use of a non-classified commercial application even for such life-and-death matters as planning a military operation leads to the inevitable inference that Defendants must have used Signal to conduct other official government business,” the group’s attorneys wrote in court documents.
Boasberg’s order only covers messages from March 11 to March 15.
“We are still ascertaining what records the agencies have,” said Justice Department attorney Amber Richer.
“I’m glad we could figure out a solution,” the judge added, telling the government to provide an update by Monday.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said no classified information was shared in the Signal chat. Hegseth’s spokesman, Sean Parnell, also stated that “there were no classified materials or war plans shared. The Secretary was merely updating the group on a plan that was underway.”
Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe told the Senate Intelligence Committee Tuesday that it was Hegseth’s responsibility to decide if any information was classified.
American Oversight’s attorneys argue the public has a right to see government records, even if officials are using private phones to send auto-deleting messages.
“This is nothing less than a systematic effort to evade the rules for record retention in the federal government,” they wrote. “There is no legitimate reason for this behavior, which deprives the public and Congress of an ability to see the actions of government.”
