Judge Declines to Recover Deleted Signal Messages from Trump Officials, Cites Oversight Group’s Contradictions
A federal judge ruled on Friday that it is too late to retrieve deleted Signal messages exchanged by key Trump administration officials, rejecting a broad request by the watchdog group American Oversight. The group had filed a lawsuit seeking to preserve and recover encrypted communications allegedly related to a military strike on Yemen.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg stated that since American Oversight itself had previously claimed the messages were unrecoverable, ordering their retrieval would be “futile.” While the court largely denied the group’s requests, it did grant limited relief, ordering Acting National Archivist and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to request that Attorney General Pam Bondi take action to preserve any existing Signal messages that haven’t yet been deleted.
“At this juncture, the Court largely denies American Oversight’s slew of requests and will instead grant only narrower relief,” Boasberg wrote.
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The lawsuit stemmed from revelations by Jeffrey Goldberg, Editor-in-Chief of The Atlantic, who was mistakenly added to a Signal group chat by then–National Security Adviser Mike Waltz. The chat reportedly included discussions about a military strike against the Houthis in Yemen, involving over a dozen top Trump officials.
Five officials were named in the lawsuit: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Boasberg emphasized that while the Archivist must ask the attorney general to act, Bondi has the discretion to ignore the request.
Chioma Chukwu, Executive Director of American Oversight, welcomed the ruling but criticized the delay in government compliance:
“It should never have required court intervention to compel the acting Archivist and other agency heads to perform their basic legal duties… But because they failed to act, the court has now stepped in to order what the law already requires.”
Chukwu also warned of further legal action if compliance is delayed.
