The US Treasury Department was initially the sole entity to provide the court with a timeline of messages it managed to retrieve. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent received a preservation memo on March 26, as stated by his acting general counsel, along with guidance on his core responsibility to maintain records. Consequently, images were extracted from the phones of Secretary Bessent and Daniel Katz, his chief of staff. The messages commence at 1:48 pm EST on March 15, 2025.
Anthony reported that the Atlantic article referenced a chat that occurred from the 11th to the 15th, indicating that nearly all data was lost, apart from the information supplied by the sole defendant who provided clear details on what was recoverable.
Last month, the Department of Defense informed the court that its attorneys were in the process of adhering to the agency’s preservation guidelines, and Secretary Hegseth’s communications team had been instructed to forward the Signal messages to an official DOD account. When the court sought further clarification last week, the DOD stated on Monday that a search of Hegseth’s device took place “on or about March 27,” with screenshots of the existing Signal application messages being preserved.
Attorneys from American Oversight urged the court to demand more detailed information, arguing on April 4 that the “vague, incomplete assertions” in the government’s initial declarations only raised more doubts about its “supposed efforts” to maintain the chats. The group contended, based on new reports, that the government’s response appeared “grossly inadequate.” Two days earlier, Politico had disclosed that as many as 20 private Signal chat groups had been initiated by Waltz’s team involving several cabinet officials.
Anthony suggested that the individuals who are defendants in their lawsuit are probably participants in other chats as well, presenting a more extensive issue.
Meanwhile, the Department of Justice opposed the court’s intervention, stating that its actions, in response to a watchdog group’s concerns, were legally unfounded and that the question of whether any laws were broken was irrelevant. The public, it argued, does not have “enforceable rights” in challenging the destruction of specific government records. A court order was deemed unnecessary, according to the department, because the government was already fulfilling its obligations. It mentioned that a “partial version of the chat” had already been recorded in a federal record-keeping system by “at least one agency.”
The disclosures on Monday provided various dates for preservation actions across multiple agencies, including the date when Hegseth’s phone was finally “searched.”
The State Department disclosed that screenshots of chats on Marco Rubio’s phone were captured on March 27. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence reported its screenshots were taken the following day, on March 28. The CIA mentioned it took a screenshot of the chat on March 31, but it clarified a previous court declaration, stating the image mainly shows the name of the chat group, its members, and settings, rather than its “substantive messages.”
American Oversight signaled plans to amend its initial complaint during a hearing last week, aiming to encourage the court to broaden its review to encompass the now-documented widespread use of Signal by senior officials in the national security sector.
Chukwu remarked that this challenge to government transparency threatens the core of democracy, asserting a commitment to utilizing all legal tools available to uncover the truth and hold accountable those responsible.