A federal judge ordered White House officials involved in a group chat on military strikes in Yemen to preserve the messages after a bombshell report revealed that they potentially shared classified information.
US District Judge James Boasberg ordered members of President Donald Trump’s national security team to keep any messages sent or received over the Signal messaging app between 11 and 15 March.
The order stems from a lawsuit filed by American Oversight, which alleges that Trump officials’ use of Signal violated federal records laws.
“The Trump Administration has and will continue to comply with all applicable record-keeping laws,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a statement.
The Atlantic, which first reported the existence of the chat group, noted that messages in the chat were set to disappear after a certain period of time. That has raised concerns that the messages could vanish.
Judge Boasberg said at the hearing that the order was intended to ensure no messages were lost, and not a finding of wrongdoing.
On Monday, Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic reported he was inadvertently added to a Signal group chat along with other accounts that appeared to belong to top Trump administration officials, including Vice-President JD Vance and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz.
Members of the Signal chat discussed an imminent strike against the Houthi rebel group in Yemen, and an account purporting to belong to Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth posted detailed attack and weapons plans for a 15 March strike.
The National Security Council later confirmed the chat’s authenticity.
