Three Ways Trump Administration Officials Are Evading Record-Keeping Requirements (So Far)

This week, Reuters revealed yet another way the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is circumventing public records laws: by using Google Docs, which has simultaneous editing capabilities, to draft official government documents. 

Secrecy is a hallmark of authoritarianism, and public access to information about what the government is doing is essential for a healthy democracy. Various laws and requirements are designed to ensure that official communications and documents are preserved, for public disclosure or the historical record, such as the Freedom of Information Act, the Federal Records Act, and the Presidential Records Act. But by using certain communication platforms that are set to automatically delete messages, or conducting official work over private accounts, it becomes much harder to ensure records are being preserved — if not destroyed altogether. And that makes it all the more difficult for the people to be informed and to hold their government accountable. 

Less than three months into the Trump administration, there have been — so far — three reported instances of officials using such unofficial platforms:

1. The ephemeral, auto-deleting Signal app

The Trump administration’s use of Signal sparked widespread outrage in March after the Atlantic reported that several top administration officials used the encrypted and secretive messaging app to coordinate military attack plans in Yemen. Not only was editor Jeffrey Goldberg accidentally included, but messages were set to autodelete — a violation of the Federal Records Act, which requires federal officials to preserve communications related to government business (and military operations certainly count).

American Oversight immediately sued for violations of federal records laws, and our ongoing lawsuit has already led to a federal court ordering the agencies headed by the group chat’s participants to preserve the messages. And earlier this month, the Defense Department’s independent watchdog announced it was investigating chat participant Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of Signal and compliance with records retention policies.

2. Personal Gmail accounts

Following the Signalgate news, new revelations emerged that National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, who had initiated the group chat, had used Signal to communicate with Cabinet members about multiple other sensitive national-security issues. He and his staff had used personal Gmail accounts — which are widely susceptible to hacking — to conduct official business, including scheduling meetings and discussing work-related issues. While Gmail and other similar commercial email platforms don’t have the same autodelete implications as ephemeral messaging platforms like Signal, and messages can be recovered on those platforms after being deleted, their use for official work is still problematic. According to a spokesperson, Waltz “makes sure to ‘cc’ his government email” so as to archive official correspondence as required, but it’s difficult to ensure officials using these programs are fully complying with records retention laws.

3. Google Docs

The recent news that DOGE officials are using Google Docs for government work raises serious concerns that DOGE could be failing to preserve all iterations of its drafts as well as comments left on shared documents. The platform’s simultaneous editing capabilities means officials are not circulating single copies of drafts, making it difficult to follow the proper chain of custody for government documents. It’s yet another way DOGE, whose members have also reportedly been using Signal and which the Trump administration has argued is not subject to the Federal Records Act (see our related lawsuit), is apparently seeking to operate in secrecy.

Of course, this isn’t the only way the Trump administration is evading accountability and transparency, thanks to the firings of independent watchdogs and FOIA officers as well as the politicization of the National Archives. Nor is the issue of the president’s or his appointees’ disdain for transparency and record-keeping rules unique to his current administration — just look at our investigations from his first term. American Oversight has filed several legal actions against the administration, seeking information that the public deserves, and we’ll continue shedding light on these issues to ensure the list above does not get longer.