Secretary Scott Bessent turned over his cell phone and had it digitally copied by the Treasury Department on Thursday after he participated in a Signal chat with other high-level government officials about war plans earlier this month.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth may end up turning over Signal messages too, according to court documents that describe how the Defense Department is now also moving to preserve records.
New court filings describe the Trump administration’s belated effort to comply with federal records laws. The sudden moves followed the filing of a lawsuit against several of the Signal chat participants by a nonprofit watchdog, American Oversight, which is seeking to ensure that the government doesn’t erase evidence of official activities in the aftermath of Signal-gate. The scandal began earlier this week when The Atlantic published details of how some members of the administration mistakenly included a journalist in a group chat that discussed specific plans to bomb Houthi rebels in Yemen.