American Oversight Seeks Temporary Restraining Order Against Trump Administration to Stop Destruction of Signal Messages

Today, American Oversight filed a motion for a temporary restraining order in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against the Trump administration to immediately halt any further destruction of critically important federal records regarding the administration’s use of Signal to discuss military planning. The motion asks the court to order the defendants, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and Secretary of State and acting Archivist Marco Rubio, to comply with their mandatory obligations under the Federal Records Act. 

The emergency motion follows yesterday’s lawsuit seeking to prevent further unlawful destruction of federal records and to compel the recovery of any records created through their unauthorized use of Signal. Earlier this week, the Atlantic reported that top national security officials discussed war operations and confirmed tactical strikes in Yemen in a private Signal group chat that included editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, who had been added to the group apparently by mistake. According to Goldberg, messages in the group chat were set to disappear after a certain number of days. American Oversight’s lawsuit underscores the serious risks to democratic accountability when public officials conduct government business on secretive, untraceable platforms — particularly when those platforms are designed to erase records automatically.

“Using disappearing messaging apps to plan highly sensitive military operations isn’t just a transparency problem — it’s a national security crisis and potentially criminal,” said American Oversight Interim Executive Director Chioma Chukwu. “These officials chose platforms specifically designed to leave no paper trail for decisions that could cost lives and impact global stability. The court must act swiftly to preserve whatever remains of these communications before more evidence disappears, and ensure that these officials take concrete steps to preserve public records going forward.”

The Federal Records Act requires federal officials to preserve communications related to official government business. Generally, agencies ensure retention of messages sent on apps like Signal by setting policies requiring officials and personnel to forward them to official systems for proper archival or take other steps to preserve their content.

A copy of the temporary restraining order motion is available here and the full complaint is available here.