The lawsuit, filed by American Oversight in a D.C. court on Tuesday, comes a day after The Atlantic reported its editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, had been inadvertently included in a group chat on the texting platform Signal with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance and others as they discussed details of pending attacks on Houthi rebels in Yemen.
The attack discussed was conducted March 16.
American Oversight alleges in the lawsuit that the use of the Signal app by the Trump officials violates the Federal Records Act and the Administrative Procedure Act.
All federal agencies are required to retain such sensitive information, and the watchdog argues that their use of Signal -- which also has an auto-delete function -- threatens their preservation. The failure to retain these government communications also makes them inaccessible to Freedom of Information Act requests, potentially made by American Oversight and other organizations.
American Oversight interim Executive Director Chioma Chukwu warned that the Trump officials' use of Signal to discuss the war plans was "a five-alarm fire" and a potential crime.
"War planning doesn't belong in emoji-laden disappearing group chats. It belongs in secure facilities designed to safeguard national interests -- something any responsible government official should have known" Chukwu said in a statement.
"Our lawsuit seeks to ensure these federal records are preserved and recovered."
The White House has confirmed the existence of the Signal chat but has attempted to downplay the severity of the lapse.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on X claimed that no war plans or classified material were shared through the app.
"The White House is looking into how Goldberg's number was inadvertently added to the thread," she said.
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