Judge Orders Additional Declarations in American Oversight’s Case on Use of Signal by Top Trump Official

Today, a federal court ordered multiple government agencies to provide additional details about their preservation efforts in American Oversight’s lawsuit against top Trump administration officials for their use of Signal for official government business. Despite the Trump administration’s argument that its declarations demonstrated its “best efforts to preserve” all relevant Signal communications, Judge James Boasberg ordered the government to supply new declarations by Monday that clarify the scope and timing of their preservation efforts for potential federal records involved in the SignalGate group chat.

On Friday, April 4, American Oversight filed its opposition to the Trump administration’s court-ordered status report and declarations. The filing argued that the administration’s response was grossly inadequate in addressing the unlawful destruction of federal records, and indicated that relevant records may have already been deleted. 

“Today’s hearing underscored our concern that the Trump administration is attempting to hide its dangerous and reckless actions from the American people,” said Chioma Chukwu, interim Executive Director of American Oversight. “The use of encrypted, disappearing messages on Signal for official government business is not only a blatant violation of the Federal Records Act — it’s a deliberate strategy to evade accountability and conceal the truth. This conduct sets a deeply troubling precedent for transparency and oversight, and it must not be allowed to stand. We are grateful that the court recognized the deficiencies in the government’s declarations and acted swiftly. We will continue pursuing every legal avenue to expose what the administration is trying to hide and fight back against its calculated secrecy.”

At today’s hearing, American Oversight Senior Counsel Benjamin Sparks explained why most of the agencies’ declarations provided in response to Judge Boasberg’s March 27 order fell short by leaving open questions about what the agencies had preserved, when they had begun preservation efforts, and other meaningful details. Sparks also informed the court that it would soon file an amended complaint to address recent revelations about even more Signal communications beyond those cited in the original complaint.

American Oversight will respond to the government’s supplemental declarations by Wednesday, April 16.