Trump's Cabinet Defends Effort To Save Signal Chat Records

2025-05-08 02:00:42

(MENAFN- Live Mint) A group of President Donald Trump's cabinet members who inadvertently included the editor of the Atlantic in their Signal chat about a military strike in Yemen tried to reassure a judge that they've done enough to preserve records of the exchange.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other officials said in a filing late Wednesday that a strict order isn't necessary because parts of the group chat in March, including portions not published by the Atlantic, were saved in the“agencies' recordkeeping systems.”

The officials' use of Signal provoked an uproar after the Atlantic revealed that National Security Advisor Michael Waltz had accidentally added its editor, Jeffrey Goldberg, to a group chat to discuss plans to attack Houthi rebels in Yemen. That episode was believed to have played a role in Trump's decision to remove Waltz as his top national-security aide and nominate him as ambassador to the United Nations.

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In the aftermath of the controversy, Trump himself suggested officials shouldn't be using the app and said he preferred in-person conversations about sensitive topics.

A lawsuit brought by the liberal-leaning advocacy group American Oversight alleged that participants in the chat violated records-preservation laws by sending messages that are designed to disappear.

Also Read | Pete Hegseth sent Yemen strike details to wife, brother in Signal chat

In Wednesday's filing, Justice Department lawyers argued that the government has“in fact preserved parts of the Signal group chat” and said the law doesn't require more“in the absence of evidence that records are likely to be destroyed.”

The lawyers said there's nothing deficient about the government's written records policies and asked the judge to avoid creating“potentially burdensome and draconian consequences” in cases of lost records.

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