Judge Orders Trump Defendants to Preserve Signal Chat Group Messages

Judge James Boasberg directed five officials from President Donald Trump 'Cabinet members were asked on Thursday to preserve their Signal messages ranging from March 11 to March 15 as part of a lawsuit accusing them of violating federal record-keeping laws. '

A Department of Justice The attorney informed Boabserg that they had already begun safeguarding the records and were compliant with his directive. However, they also noted a potential issue: the Cabinet members might not be able to retrieve certain messages due to the use of an encrypted messaging application equipped with an automatic deletion feature.

“A DOJ lawyer informed the judge that we are still in the process of identifying which records exist,” she said.

The directive was issued as part of the preliminary stage of a complaint filed earlier this week by the progressive non-profit organization American Oversight. This action followed The Atlantic’s revealing report on how Cabinet members utilized Signal to converse about their impending strategy for conducting airstrikes targeting the Houthis in Yemen.

The complaint stated that the officials failed to appropriately retain Signal messages, with some being completely deleted via the auto-delete feature, thus breaching the Federal Records Act.

Boasberg requested a progress report by March 31. As he issued his directive, he stated, "I will put this in writing—don't concern yourself," simultaneously casting a sidelong glance at the DOJ. The latter entity has previously claimed in an unrelated, controversial lawsuit that only Boasberg’s documented orders hold legal weight, not his verbal ones.

This case is only the second instance where Judge Boasberg, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama and serves as the chief judge of Washington’s district court, has been randomly assigned a matter involving the Trump administration and raising concerns about the handling of sensitive national security data.

The judge has become a top target of Trump’s attacks after Boasberg temporarily enjoined the president from carrying out deportations under the Alien Enemies Act, a powerful wartime law.

The president and his supporters have questioned whether Boasberg was randomly selected for the Signal case. On Thursday, Trump posted on social media stating that this case marked Judge Boasberg’s fourth instance involving him, describing this as "statistically impossible." However, Boasberg’s office verified on Wednesday that the assignment had indeed been random.

During the hearing, Boasberg discussed the increased public attention surrounding the assignment process. He clarified that he had been randomly assigned to the case and stated, "Random assignment is carried out through an automated system."

JUDGE JAMES BOASBERG, THE RULING THAT STOPPED TRUMP'S DEPORTATION POLICIES, HAS BEEN TASKED WITH HANDLING THE SIGNIFICANT CASE

Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, informed the Washington Examiner that, considering his knowledge of the D.C. court system, he believes Trump's suggestion that Boasberg being assigned to the case was not coincidental is "completely false."

[Boasberg is] very much a stickler for following procedures, quite bound by rules, so he wouldn’t even consider an alternative approach,” Tobias stated, further noting that “the responsibility lies entirely with the court’s clerk, who handles all the allocations. This individual operates independently from the judges when it comes to both appearance and actuality. It’s crucial that these assignments remain anonymous.