Hegseth, Rubio, Gabbard and other top Trump administration officials sued over Signal chats on Yemen war

A government watchdog group filed a lawsuit Tuesday against several top Trump administration national security officials, alleging misuse of the encrypted messaging app Signal to discuss military actions in Yemen. The lawsuit argues that the action violates the Federal Records Act (FRA).

The lawsuit, filed by American Oversight, an organization that frequently seeks public records through legal action, argues that the use of Signal obstructs its ability to obtain government documents.

According to the lawsuit, the Federal Records Act generally requires officials to preserve communications related to official matters and ensure they are transmitted through official government channels.

Therefore, the organization stated that through the lawsuit, it aims to recover the messages that were allegedly deleted in violation of the law.

"The Federal Records Act requires federal officials to preserve communications related to official government business," the nonprofit 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 lawsuit targets several top Trump administration officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth; Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard; CIA Director John Ratcliffe; Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent; and Marco Rubio, who serves as both acting secretary of state and acting archivist.

Chioma Chukwu, acting executive director of American Oversight, sharply questioned whether Trump administration officials used Signal to discuss his next steps in Yemen, suggesting that such actions could potentially be considered a crime.

"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," Chukwu said. "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. Our lawsuit seeks to ensure these federal records are preserved and recovered. The American people deserve answers and we won’t stop until we get them."

However, despite the criticism directed at senior Cabinet officials, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz publicly took responsibility for the mistake, just hours after President Trump defended him in the press, assuring that the former deputy had already learned from his error in unintentionally adding the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic to a chat where Trump’s Cabinet discussed attacks against the Houthis in Yemen.