Judge James Boasberg to preside over suit against Trump admin over Signal group chat

US District Judge James Boasberg has been assigned a case filed against the Trump administration by the watchdog group American Oversight after The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg said he was inadvertently added into a Signal group chat with other top Trump administration officials in which plans to attack Yemen’s Houthis were discussed.

Boasberg has come into the spotlight in recent weeks in relation to his overseeing of a case against President Donald Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act to deport illegal immigrant gang members to an El Salvadoran prison.

American Oversight filed its lawsuit against the Trump administration over its use of Signal on Tuesday, alleging violations of the Federal Records Act and the Administrative Procedure Act. 

Named in the lawsuit are Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and the National Archives and Records Administration.

The lawsuit cites Goldberg’s Atlantic article outlining his time in the group chat called Houthi PC small group, which he was added to on March 13. Goldberg said a total of 18 people were in the group chat, including those listed in the lawsuit. Goldberg appeared in the chat under the name "JG."

"According to the Atlantic Article, at least one participant in the Signal chat enabled the function that makes messages disappear after set time limits," the lawsuit stated. "Defendant Waltz set at least some messages to disappear after one week, and at least some messages to disappear after four weeks." 

The suit later added, "Signal is not an authorized system for preserving federal records and does not comply with recordkeeping requirements under the FRA or NARA guidance."

American Oversight said that it has repeatedly sought communications from the Department of Defense under the Freedom of Information Act, including Signal messages, which remain pending.

"Upon information and belief, under current DoD recordkeeping  rules and practices, officials do not forward Signal messages, including messages from the Signal chat, to their official email accounts, thereby barring American Oversight and other FOIA requesters from obtaining responsive records to which they are otherwise entitled under FOIA, particularly if such Signal messages have enabled the disappearing function." American Oversight has also submitted FOIA requests with other agencies represented by those listed as defendants, the suit noted.

The suit later added, "Defendants’ use of Signal, as demonstrated by this particular example, presents a substantial risk that they have used and continue to use Signal in other contexts, thereby creating records that are subject to the FRA and/or the FOIA, but are not being preserved as required by those statutes. Defentants’ use of Signal, as demonstrated by this particular example, strongly suggests that they have used Signal to communicate about matters that may otherwise have been discussed via email, thereby avoiding creating records responsive to American Oversight’s FOIA requests for emails."

American Oversight Interim Executive Director Chioma Chukwu said, "This reported disclosure of sensitive military information in a Signal group chat that included a journalist is a five-alarm fire for government accountability and potentially a crime. 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."

In the wake of Goldberg's Monday report on the group chat, and Hegseth telling reporters "Nobody was texting war plans. And that’s all I have to say about that," Goldberg published a follow-up report on Wednesday morning showing details on portions of the conversation that Goldberg had previously chosen to keep redacted, as they discussed timelines on attacking the Houthis.  

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote in response, "The Atlantic has conceded: these were NOT 'war plans.' This entire story was another hoax written by a Trump-hater who is well-known for his sensationalist spin."