The Federal Security screw up Signal Chat has been ordered preserved by the same Federal Judge that is touturing Trump & Co. on the War excuse deportations…..
A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to preserve chats that senior officials conducted on the Signal messaging app, including a now infamous exchange accidentally shared with a reporter earlier this month about an imminent military operation in Yemen.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg issued the order Thursday at the request of a transparency group that filed a lawsuit alleging that the app’s automatic delete function left the messages at risk of being destroyed in violation of the Federal Records Act.
During a brief afternoon hearing, Justice Department attorney Amber Richer told Boasberg such an order was not necessary because the agencies involved were already taking steps to preserve the records, but she did not object to the judge reinforcing that with a court order.
“We are still in the process of working with agencies to determine what records they have, but we are also working with the agencies to preserve whatever records they have,” Richer said.
However, the government lawyer appeared to acknowledge a statement from a Treasury Department official in a court filing earlier in the day that suggested Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent currently has only part of the message chain about the Yemen strike.
The journalist who was added to the message chain, Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg, reported that the chat began on March 11. But Bessent apparently has retained only the messages starting on the afternoon of March 15. It is not clear why Bessent doesn’t have earlier messages or whether other senior officials on the chat have retained them.
“I just want to caveat that we are still ascertaining what records the agencies have,” Richer told Boasberg…..
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Boasberg’s order came in response to a lawsuit filed Tuesday by pro-transparency group American Oversight, claiming that the messages were in danger of being deleted in violation of the Federal Records Act and that Trump administration officials appeared to be using the ephemeral messaging app to evade federal recordkeeping requirements.
Richer did not concede Thursday that the messages were legally required to be preserved, saying government lawyers “have not fully evaluated that issue.” Federal law does not require that every email or app message sent or received by a federal employee be saved, even if it pertains to official business.
In an unusual preface to the hearing, Boasberg responded to a social media post early Thursday in which President Donald Trump suggested without evidence that Boasberg had improperly taken control of the politically sensitive case.
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