American Oversight’s Lawsuit Forces Creation of New Records Retention Policy for DOGE
The White House announced a “records retention policy” for DOGE following our lawsuit, on the heels of our other lawsuit over the administration's use of auto-deleting Signal messages for highly sensitive national security deliberations.
Last week, in American Oversight’s ongoing lawsuit against the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, the Trump Justice Department revealed — for the first time — a two-day-old “records retention policy” purportedly governing DOGE officials’ communications, including those belonging to the head of DOGE, Elon Musk. The disclosure came after American Oversight filed a motion for a preservation order, citing concerns that DOGE staffers were using Signal for official business and may have already deleted key communications.
In response, American Oversight’s interim executive director Chioma Chukwu released the following statement:
“After American Oversight sued to stop senior Trump officials from deleting Signal messages related to national security, the Trump DOJ — for the first time — produced a days-old records retention policy in our separate lawsuit against DOGE, claiming it reflects current practices. But an eleventh-hour policy shift doesn’t erase a well-documented pattern of destroying records to avoid oversight. The public deserves more than performative promises — they deserve proof of compliance with federal law. American Oversight will keep holding this administration accountable, not for what it says, but for what it does.”
In February, American Oversight sued DOGE for failing to respond to FOIA requests for Elon Musk’s communications around efforts to purge the federal workforce, beginning with the mass firing of independent federal agency inspectors general — officials statutorily charged with identifying inefficiencies and rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse. The following month, American Oversight amended its lawsuit to include additional requests DOGE ignored, further challenging the Trump administration’s continued attempts to shield Elon Musk’s government work from public scrutiny.
Last week, following reporting in The Atlantic that top national security officials — along with Vice President J.D. Vance and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz — discussed war operations in a private Signal group chat, mistakenly including Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, with messages set to auto-delete, American Oversight filed a lawsuit and motion for temporary restraining order seeking to prevent further unlawful destruction of the Signal communications and to compel the recovery of deleted messages. On Friday, March 28, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted American Oversight’s motion, ordering the preservation of all Signal messages dating from March 11–15 by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, National Security Adviser Michael Waltz, and Secretary of State and acting Archivist Marco Rubio.