Watchdog Group Sues Trump Officials Over Signal Chat

A government watchdog group known for targeting Republican interests has sued the Trump administration for allegedly discussing war plans on an open-source instant-messaging app.

American Oversight, which calls itself nonpartisan but has aimed all of its investigations and litigations at the GOP, filed suit in a D.C. federal court against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Axios reported.

The lawsuit alleges the chat on the unclassified commercial app that mistakenly included The Atlantic's Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg violated federal records laws.

On its website, American Oversight said it is seeking to "recover unlawfully deleted messages and prevent further destruction."

"The Federal Records Act requires federal officials to preserve communications related to official government business," the organization said. "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."

The group's interim executive director Chioma Chukwu said: "This reported disclosure of sensitive military information in a Signal group chat that included a journalist is a five-alarm fire for government accountability and potentially a crime. War planning doesn't belong in emoji-laden disappearing group chats. It belongs in secure facilities designed to safeguard national interests — something any responsible government official should have known."

Goldberg on Monday revealed he was accidentally included in a group chat with top White House officials who were discussing plans for military action against the Houthis in Yemen.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, national security adviser Mike Waltz, and White House press secretary Karolina Leavitt then all attacked Goldberg's integrity as a journalist. Hegseth and Leavitt insisted war plans were not discussed during the chat.

Gabbard and Ratcliffe both testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee that no classified information was shared during the chat. They agreed to an audit of the conversation.

President Donald Trump told Newsmax's Greg Kelly he is "very comfortable" with the explanation and resolution of how Goldberg ended up on the group thread with members of his national security team.