Government watchdog group American Oversight filed a federal lawsuit against senior Trump administration officials on Tuesday for their use of the messaging app Signal to discuss military plans to target Houthi militants in Yemen, a day after White House officials confirmed The Atlantic’s report that the magazine’s editor-in-chief was accidentally added to the war plans group chat.
The Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard (L); and CIA Director, John Ratcliffe were ... More
In a filing before a D.C. federal court, American Oversight argues that the officials’ decision to use a publicly available messaging app, “which can be set up to automatically delete messages,” violated the Federal Records Act (FRA).
The suit names Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Secretary of State Marco Rubio as defendants.
The filing notes that American Oversight has filed the suit under the FRA and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) to “prevent the unlawful destruction of federal records” and compel the defendants to “preserve and recover federal records created through unauthorized use of Signal for sensitive national security decision-making.”
The watchdog’s suit requests that the court declare that the messages sent in Signal are subject to the FRA and issue an injunction forcing the defendants to comply with record-keeping laws and “preserve all materials” relating to this case.
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In a statement accompanying the suit, American Oversight Interim Executive Director Chioma Chukwu said: “War planning doesn’t belong in emoji-laden disappearing group chats. It belongs in secure facilities designed to safeguard national interests — something any responsible government official should have known. Our lawsuit seeks to ensure these federal records are preserved and recovered. The American people deserve answers and we won’t stop until we get them.”