A federal judge has issued a mixed ruling in a closely watched lawsuit over the use of encrypted, auto-deleting messaging apps by senior executive branch officials to conduct government business, a practice watchdogs say threatens the preservation of vital public records.
The case, brought by the nonprofit American Oversight, targeted the heads of several key agencies, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John L. Ratcliffe, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and Secretary of State Marco A. Rubio, alleging they used the Signal app to coordinate official actions, including military operations, in violation of the Federal Records Act (FRA). The suit also named the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and Rubio in his capacity as acting Archivist.
American Oversight filed suit after learning that senior officials used a Signal group chat, set to auto-delete, to discuss U.S. military strikes in Yemen in March 2025. The group argued that such communications are federal records and must be preserved, not erased, under the FRA. The watchdog sought a sweeping preliminary injunction to force agencies to overhaul recordkeeping policies, notify the Archivist of any unlawful deletions, and require preservation of all Signal messages during the litigation.
Chief Judge James E. Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia denied most of American Oversight’s requests, finding that the agencies’ formal recordkeeping policies generally comply with the law and that the watchdog had not shown evidence of a widespread informal policy permitting unlawful destruction of records. The judge noted that while the use of Signal by agency heads is troubling, there was insufficient proof that this conduct extended agency-wide or amounted to a systematic violation of the FRA.
However, the court did side with American Oversight on a crucial point: the FRA imposes mandatory duties on agency heads to notify the Archivist of any impending unlawful deletion of records, and on the Archivist to refer such cases to the Attorney General. Judge Boasberg found that the officials had likely failed to fulfill these duties regarding Signal chats that had not yet been deleted, and ordered them to promptly comply.
The court limited its relief to messages that are at risk of deletion but not yet erased, noting that once Signal messages are deleted, they are “lost forever to history” and cannot be recovered.
The judge declined to issue a broad order requiring the preservation of all Signal messages during the case, ruling that such a remedy is not available under the FRA or the Administrative Procedure Act in this context. The court also required American Oversight to post a nominal $1 bond as a condition of the injunction, finding no evidence the government would suffer material harm from the order.
