The US judge tasked with overseeing a new lawsuit related to the Signal controversy is the same judge whom Donald Trump contends should face impeachment for preventing him from employing wartime powers to deport Venezuelan migrants.
James Boasberg, a district judge in Washington, was assigned to a lawsuit on Wednesday alleging that Trump officials violated federal record-keeping laws by utilizing a Signal group chat to deliberate on imminent military actions against Yemen’s Houthis.
Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine, who was unintentionally included in the chat, reported that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth texted the time for the planned assassination of a Houthi militant in Yemen on March 15, along with specifics of additional US airstrikes.
The exposure of sensitive attack plans being communicated via a commercial messaging app, potentially from personal devices, has sparked outrage in Washington and prompted Democratic calls for the removal of members from Trump’s national security team.
The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday by the liberal watchdog group American Oversight, claims that officials neglected to implement measures to avert the automatic deletion of messages in the Signal chat, in contravention of their obligations under the Federal Records Act.
This lawsuit seeks a court ruling declaring their actions unlawful and an injunction compelling Hegseth and other Trump administration officials to preserve records and recover any deleted materials to the fullest extent possible.
The administration has yet to respond to the lawsuit; however, officials maintain that no classified information was exchanged via Signal, which White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt described as an authorized app installed on government phones at the Pentagon, Department of State, and the Central Intelligence Agency.
Boasberg, the chief judge of the US district court for the District of Columbia, was assigned to this case through the court’s standard random assignment procedure, as noted by a court spokesperson.
The White House and the US Department of Justice did not provide remarks when approached for comment.
Boasberg has found himself at the heart of a rising dispute with the Trump administration, prompting concerns among the president’s critics regarding a potential constitutional crisis should the administration ignore judicial rulings.
Last week, the judge instructed attorneys from the Justice Department to provide justification for the administration’s failure to reinstate flights that were meant to deport alleged Venezuelan gang members back to El Salvador on March 15, despite his ruling halting such deportations for two weeks.
The administration claims these deportations were executed under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act. Justice Department lawyers reiterated on Tuesday that the flights did not breach Boasberg’s order.
Last week, Trump called for Boasberg’s impeachment, which led to a rare criticism from John Roberts, Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, who stated that “impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision”, which may be appealed.
Republican lawmakers have introduced resolutions seeking the impeachment of Boasberg and five other judges who have obstructed Trump’s agenda, as the White House intensifies its attacks on the judiciary.
