Judge takes action to prevent Heggs, Waltz and others from deleting Houthi text

A federal judge in Washington ordered Trump administration officials to participate in a signaling group chat on Thursday to discuss details of the pending attack on Yemen to preserve all the information they exchanged on the app before the strike.

Judge James E. Boasberg's decision is in response to a lawsuit filed this week by the nonprofit oversight group, U.S. Oversight, which has accused President Trump's national security team of violating federal record laws by using signals (encrypted commercial platforms) to chat to talk about a highly sensitive attack on Yemen's Houthi rebels.

Judge Boasberg, sitting in the Washington District Court, ordered a petition to senior government officials, including Michael Waltz, a national security adviser to Mr. Trump; Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth; Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard; Secretary of State Marco Rubio; and Vice President JD Vance.

It covers the period between March 11 and March 15 as the government is developing plans to attack Houthis.

The judge's order is an early sign that at least some of the usual accountability channels are still operating after most senior administration officials engage in operations that are extremely breach of operational security, and Mr. Trump's Attorney General Pam Bondi said the Justice Department is unlikely to investigate the matter.

Ms. Bondy appeared on Fox News on Ingraham Angle on Thursday night, including Judge Boasberg in the ongoing government attacks on federal judges who have recently opposed Mr. Trump’s opposition to expanding his power by enforcing actions.

Ms. Bundy said Justice Boothberg needs to be removed from the Signal Case and other Trump administration matters together with other jurists.

During a hearing in Washington District Court Thursday, Judge Boasberg made it clear that he had issued a save order to ensure no signal messages were lost, not because he found that government officials did anything wrong.

Under the Freedom of Information Act, U.S. oversight often attempts to steal information from the government, claiming that the government uses signals to discuss attack plans that violate the Federal Records Act, which requires the preservation of official communications from agency officials.

Judge Boasberg has not yet determined whether the violation has indeed occurred.

The national security agency was shocked by senior Trump administration officials not only signaled the revelation of Yemen’s military strikes, but also accidentally invited Jeffrey Goldberg, an Atlantic editor-in-chief, to the chat. In a sense, the U.S.-supervised litigation is a preemptive measure to ensure that the complete record of what is said in the group chat is not deleted.

Scott Bessent, a participant in the chat, was the finance secretary, who had handed over a version of the message on his phone, the Justice Department said in a document Thursday afternoon.

In the same document, a Pentagon lawyer asserted that he had requested a full copy of Mr. Heggs' chat, but it was not clear whether it had been handed over.

Judge Boasberg began the court hearing, where he ordered the chat to be preserved and acknowledged his acknowledgement of the extreme pressure Mr. Trump and his allies faced.

Early Thursday morning, Mr. Trump posted a message on social media claiming that Judge Bosberg was not only assigned a signal chat case, but also assigned other important matters involving Mr. Trump. These include filing a lawsuit challenging his use of wartime regulations that are rarely cited to deport dozens of Venezuelan immigrants from the country without hearings or any other form of due process.

The hearing began on Thursday, and Judge Boasberg spent some time explaining to the public how he was involved in the case first. He said the normal choice, which was normally chosen by the 24 judges in the area, was assigned to the signal case, clearly rejecting Mr. Trump's false allegations against him.

The president and his allies called on Judge Boothberg to be impeached for his decision in the immigration case.

On this issue, he temporarily banned the government from using powerful and little-known wartime regulations without normal proper hearing procedures to deport dozens of Venezuelan immigrants from the country.