ISTANBUL

A US federal judge on Thursday said he would direct the government to preserve Signal messages exchanged by senior officials discussing plans to strike Houthi targets in Yemen.

The messages drew national attention after a journalist from The Atlantic was mistakenly added to the group chat, revealing sensitive military information.

Judge James Boasberg ruled the Trump administration must retain the full exchange from March 11 to March 15, the period during which the journalist had access, according to Al Jazeera.

The move came amid fears the messages could be deleted in violation of federal record-keeping laws.

Watchdog group American Oversight sought a temporary restraining order to prevent the deletion of the chat, parts of which were later published in The Atlantic.

They said the content should be made public, highlighting that The Atlantic reported some of the Signal messages were set to disappear automatically — some within a week, others in four weeks.

Lawyers for the group wrote in court: "This is nothing less than a systematic effort to evade the rules for record retention in the federal government."

"There is no legitimate reason for this behavior, which deprives the public and Congress of an ability to see the actions of government," they continued.

The nonprofit argued that the Trump administration may have relied on Signal, an encrypted app, to sidestep the Federal Records Act of 1950, which requires preservation and disclosure of government documents.

In its filing, American Oversight said: "Defendants’ use of a non-classified commercial application even for such life-and-death matters as planning a military operation leads to the inevitable inference that Defendants must have used Signal to conduct other official government business."

A representative for the Trump administration told the judge that steps had been taken to retain any remaining messages.

The use of Signal became public after Jeffrey Goldberg joined a chat involving top US officials, including Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

He confirmed the authenticity after the bombings discussed in the chat took place on March 15.

Goldberg wrote: "I have never seen a breach quite like this," adding that Signal is typically used for logistical, not operational, planning.

While the Trump administration denied that classified information had been shared, Goldberg later published details on the bombing campaign and F-18 operations. Trump dismissed the incident as "all a witch-hunt" and blamed the messaging app.

Chioma Chukwu of American Oversight welcomed the judge’s decision, saying: "The public has a right to know how decisions about war and national security are made."