US judge order to preserve the “Signalgate” messages
A US judge ordered the Trump administration on Thursday to preserve messages from a Signal chat group used by senior national security officials to discuss an attack on Houthi rebel positions in Yemen.
These judge ruling increases pressure on the White House after The Atlantic magazine revealed that its editor-in-chief was mistakenly added to a group chat on the messaging app Signal.
Trump described the scandal, now known as “Signalgate,” as a “witch hunt” against him, attacking The Atlantic and its editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, who broke the story earlier this week.
US District Judge James Bosberg, who previously angered Trump by ruling against his administration in a separate immigration case, said he would order the government to preserve all communications made through the Signal Group between March 11 and March 15.
The judge also ordered the government to provide details by Monday explaining the steps it took to preserve the messages, which were exchanged between National Security Adviser Mike Waltz’s creation of the group chat, his mistaken addition of Goldberg, and the day of the US airstrikes on the Iranian-backed Houthis.
The Atlantic reported that Waltz scheduled some Signal messages to disappear after a week, and others after four weeks.
“This raises questions about whether officials violated the Federal Records Act,” Goldberg wrote.
The Atlantic magazine published the entire conversation on Wednesday, including explosive messages in which Hegseth revealed the timing of the strikes hours before they occurred and details of the aircraft and missiles that would be used.
Waltz sent real-time intelligence during the attack, saying that US forces had identified the target entering a building, which later collapsed.
Trump blamed Waltz, who quickly acknowledged his responsibility while denying that any classified material had been shared with the group.
“We’ve never denied that this was a mistake, White House spokeswoman Caroline Leavitt said Thursday, stressing that Waltz took responsibility.
Trump also launched a fresh attack on Bosberg the night before the final ruling, saying it was shameful that the judge was taking over the Signal case.
Top Republican and Democratic members of the Senate Armed Services Committee issued a bipartisan call Thursday for the creation of a Pentagon panel to investigate the allegations in The Atlantic.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said Thursday that the breach is unlikely to become the subject of a criminal investigation.
“It was sensitive, unclassified information that was inadvertently released,” Bondi added during a press conference.
On Thursday, the Houthis announced they had targeted Ben Gurion Airport, a military target, and a US aircraft carrier, after the Israeli military announced it had intercepted two missiles fired from Yemen.
