The U.S. Treasury Department initially provided the court with a timeline of information that can be retrieved. His acting general counsel said Finance Minister Scott Bessent received a memorandum of preservation on March 26, along with suggestions on his basic obligation to keep records. Therefore, “the image was taken from the cell phone of Secretary Bessent and Mr. [Daniel] Katz, “Bessent’s Chief of Staff. News starts at 1:48 pm ET on March 15, 2025.
“The Atlantic article is about chats conducted on the 11th to 15th, and that almost everything went away – from the only defendant who gave us clear and specific information about what they could save.”
The Defense Department told the court last month that its lawyers were “compliant with the agency’s preservation rules” and that the minister Hegseth’s communications team was asked to forward the signal messages to an official Defense Department account. The Defense Department said Monday that it provided more details to the court last week, searching the Heggs device for searching “around March 27”, adding that screenshots of “existing signal application messages” were retained.
The U.S.-surveillance lawyer urged the court to seek greater specificity, and argued on April 4 that the “vague, incomplete assertion” in the administration’s initial manifesto raised new doubts only about its “alleged efforts” to retain chat. The group believes that the government’s response appears to be “seriously inadequate” given the new reports. Politico reported two days ago that up to 20 private signal chat groups were formed by Waltz’s team along with many cabinet officials.
“The individuals of the defendants in our lawsuit are likely to be involved in some other chats, and we have this problem on a broader basis,” Anthony said.
Meanwhile, the Justice Department opposed the court’s intervention, believing that its efforts on behalf of the Watchdog Organization are legally confused and that in any case, there is no question of whether the law is violated. It argues that the public has no “enforceable rights” when challenging the destruction of specific government records. The department said court orders were unnecessary because the government had taken steps to do what they needed. It said that “partial versions of chat” have been committed to “at least one agency.”
Among other new details, Monday’s disclosure provided the dates for multiple agencies to keep work, including the date when the Hergss phone was eventually “searched”.
The State Department said that on March 27, screenshots of chatting on Marco Rubio’s mobile phone were also captured. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence said its screenshot was taken the next day on March 28. The CIA said the screenshot was taken on March 31. However, it also clarified one of its previous statements to the court, revealing that the image mainly displays the names of the chat group and its certain members and settings, but without any “substantial information”.
The U.S. oversight previewed a case that revised its initial complaint at a hearing last week and plans to encourage courts to expand their review to include senior officials in now-reported, widely used national security states.
“This attack on government transparency threatens the foundation of our democracy,” Chukwu said. “We are committed to using all the legal tools available to uncover the truth and make those responsible in charges.”
