Court Ruling on Trump's Team's Confidentiality Breach
Political
A U.S. court has supported the lawsuit filed by American Oversight. The case revolves around a journalist who accidentally joined a secret chat discussing classified U.S. orders on airstrikes against the Houthis. Authorities attempted to "clean up" the chat, but the court ruled that deleting posts from the special chat violated government record-keeping regulations.
Amid the scandal surrounding a secret Signal government chat, a Washington court ordered that all messages from March 11 to March 15 be preserved. This was reported on March 28 by international media outlets, including CNN, dpa, and AFP.
Initially, the chat settings automatically deleted messages after one week. However, U.S. National Security Advisor Mike Waltz later changed the settings to keep messages for four weeks.
Court documents indicate that Waltz mistakenly added The Atlantic's editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, to the chat. The journalist took advantage of the error and leaked the entire conversation. The messages revealed that members of Donald Trump's administration and the Pentagon were discussing U.S. airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen.
Journalists note that U.S. National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe tried to downplay the incident, testifying before the Senate that no classified information was shared in the chat.
However, despite Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's claims that military plans were not discussed, the leaked messages reveal details of attack timing, the launch of F-18 fighter jets, MQ-9 drones, and Tomahawk cruise missiles. In one message, the Pentagon chief wrote: "12:15 ET: F-18 taking off."
The court's ruling to save the chat messages came in response to American Oversight's lawsuit, arguing that deleting messages violates government record-keeping laws. Judge James Boasberg ordered the defendants to take all necessary steps to preserve the chat history.
According to dpa, those named in the lawsuit include Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe.
Initially, the chat settings automatically deleted messages after one week. However, U.S. National Security Advisor Mike Waltz later changed the settings to keep messages for four weeks.
Court documents indicate that Waltz mistakenly added The Atlantic's editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, to the chat. The journalist took advantage of the error and leaked the entire conversation. The messages revealed that members of Donald Trump's administration and the Pentagon were discussing U.S. airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen.
Journalists note that U.S. National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe tried to downplay the incident, testifying before the Senate that no classified information was shared in the chat.
However, despite Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's claims that military plans were not discussed, the leaked messages reveal details of attack timing, the launch of F-18 fighter jets, MQ-9 drones, and Tomahawk cruise missiles. In one message, the Pentagon chief wrote: "12:15 ET: F-18 taking off."
The court's ruling to save the chat messages came in response to American Oversight's lawsuit, arguing that deleting messages violates government record-keeping laws. Judge James Boasberg ordered the defendants to take all necessary steps to preserve the chat history.
According to dpa, those named in the lawsuit include Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe.
Powered by Froala Editor