Hegseth & Gabbard Sued Over Explosive Signal Chat Scandal—Possible Criminal Charges Loom

The story about left-wing “journalists” Jeffrey Goldberg and Signal’s chat on national security has somehow managed to become even dumber. A government watchdog group is suing Secretary Pete Hegseth and DNI Tulsi Gabbard for allegedly violating federal records laws.

Goldberg, as we reported previously, was (as far we know) accidentally added to a discussion encrypted about the then-upcoming attacks against Houthi terrorists. It’s unclear how this happened at this time. NSA Michael Waltz administered the group but said in an interview Tuesday evening that he didn’t know Goldberg. Multiple Trump officials testified under oath to the fact that no classified information was shared.

American Oversight, which I admit that I am not familiar with, has filed a suit alleging that federal record laws were violated.

The big picture: American Oversight claims in its lawsuit that the chat on unclassified commercial apps that included The Atlantic’s editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg by mistake violated federal record laws.

Driving the news: A lawsuit filed in a federal court in Washington, D.C. names Hegseth, as well as officials such Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Scott Bessent, Treasury Secretary, and Marco Rubio, in his capacity of secretary of state and acting archivist.

American Oversight stated in a press release that it is seeking to “recover illegally deleted messages and stop further destruction.”

The nonprofit stated that “the Federal Records Act” requires federal officials to keep all communications related to government business.

“In general, agencies ensure that messages sent via apps like Signal are retained by setting up policies that require officials and staff to send them to official systems to be archived or to take other measures to preserve their contents.”

There are indeed legalities involved in the matter of record retention. However, it’s not clear that this law was broken. “Does American Oversight have any evidence that the Signal chat was not properly archived?” How could they know this without submitting a FOIA and waiting to receive an answer like everyone else? This lawsuit was filed so quickly that it seems like more of a PR stunt by the ethics group rather than a genuine concern.

“American Oversight,” no doubt, has paid attention to how the judiciary operated during President Donald Trump’s second term. Judges who are more than willing to show their political biases have handed down a litany of questionable rulings. This “ethics” group likely views this as a win/win situation. Even if the group fails to produce anything noteworthy, they will likely generate some media and cause headaches for the Trump administration.

Chioma Chukwu, interim executive director of “American Oversight”, has claimed that Hegseth, as well as the other officials who participated in the chat, may have committed crimes.

What they are saying: American Oversight’s interim executive director Chioma Chukwu stated in a press release that the “reported revelation of sensitive military data in a Signal chat group which included a reporter is a five alarm fire for accountability in government and possibly a crime.”

I laughed when I read this article and joked that a judge would order Trump’s national security cabinet members to resign. You can still expect more shenanigans. Who knows what this judge will decide?

In closing, I think that everyone who works for the Trump administration should take this story as a warning. Their political enemies are always looking for an opportunity to attack them. This includes the media and the judiciary system. To prevent this from happening again, all precautions should be taken.

Update:

The case has been assigned to Judge James Boasberg in an ironic twist.