A United State federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to provide more details about how it is preserving the messages regarding US military strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen that were sent in a Signal chat group last month.
The top intelligence officials’ conversation inadvertently included Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, who later published excerpts from the chat.
The release of such sensitive information, which several members of the administration have claimed was not classified, underscored the extent of the breach in operational security.
Last month, US District Judge James Boasberg ordered key Trump administration agencies to preserve messages sent on Signal between March 11 to March 15.
Boasberg made the ruling in a preservation lawsuit brought in the wake of the revelation that Cabinet officials were discussing war plans on Signal.
The Justice Department said at that time the administration is already working to track down and preserve the Signal texts from that period.
Boasberg’s temporary restraining order also directed the administration to file a status report accompanied with declarations from government officials, explaining the steps the agencies were taking to preserve the messages.
A day after the revelation, a watchdog group filed a lawsuit accusing the Cabinet officials on the chat of violating federal records law.
Sources told CNN that the details shared in the group message by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth were classified, though the Trump administration has denied it.
American Oversight, the nonprofit advocacy group that brought the records-preservation lawsuit, said the ruling “marks an important step toward accountability.”