A federal judge in the US District of Columbia has ordered the Washington administration to preserve all correspondence on the messaging app Signal related to the data leak on US strikes in Yemen.
This is stated in the ruling published in the court's electronic database.
According to the document, the administration of US President Donald Trump, which is the defendant in this case, “must immediately make every effort to preserve all Signal messages from March 11 to 15“. The first hearing in the case was held earlier Thursday.
The lawsuit against the US government was filed on March 25 by American Oversight, a non-governmental organization that claims to hold the country's government accountable. The organization is demanding the preservation of all documents and records related to the work of the US government. Its lawsuit claims that sensitive discussions of US officials on Signal violate US government records laws because messages on the app can be deleted. American Oversight is calling for the practice to be declared illegal.
Earlier, a scandal erupted in Washington when it became known that Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of the Atlantic magazine, was mistakenly added to a group on the messenger Signal that was discussing strikes against the Houthis in Yemen. He later wrote an article about what happened. Political opponents of the administration in Washington have accused Trump's national security adviser, Mike Walz, of misusing confidential information, as he is responsible for the formation of the group.
The US Democratic Party considers the data leak via Signal a major failure in the work of Trump administration officials responsible for ensuring national security. In the US Congress and in the American expert community, there are calls for the dismissal of Walz and some other figures from the presidential team.
On March 15, the United States, on the orders of Trump, began carrying out massive strikes on Houthi targets, who control about a third of the territory of Yemen. According to the US Central Command, the operation is aimed at protecting American interests and ensuring freedom of navigation.