Another problem with that signal chat? Messages disappear.

The chat of the Signal group according to which the high officials of the Trump administration convened to discuss military strikes in Yemen has aroused indignation for the reckless way in which a journalist was mistakenly added to the group.

But even open government experts raised another concern: the increase in the use of disappointing messaging apps such as Signal, which according to them could become a way for officials to avoid the requirements of federal laws intended to preserve the government’s registers.

“It is a big problem,” said Anne Weismann, professor of law of George Washington who often acts as an external consultant for non -profit organizations that push for greater opening in the government.

The White House did not answer a question on which guide the Trump administration had given to the best assistants on the conservation of messages they send or receive on a signal. But experts say that the chat in question should be preserved.

“If the defense secretary is participating in a conversation on planning an attack, I think it is difficult to argue that there are circumstances in which this would not be appropriate for conservation,” Weismann said.

Two federal laws – the Presidential Records Act and the Federal Records Act – require officials to preserve communications relating to government activities. Agencies can comply with the law by instructing those who use messaging apps to preserve chats through shots or other means.

The presidential registers, who would include the communications of the vice -president JD Vance, who participated in Signal’s chat, must be kept permanently. Many other federal registers are considered temporary, but must be kept until the National Administration Archives and Records approves their destruction.

All this affects what the public records can possibly see through the requests of the Freedom of Information Act. If the record is not preserved, there is nothing to release.

On Thursday, a federal judge listened to the topics of the American Guardian group Oversight, who accused the National Security Team of Trump of violating the laws on federal registers.

Judge James E. Boasberg ordered the government to preserve all the records in the chat, which took place from 11 to 15 March. He clarified that he was issuing his order to be sure that no signal message was lost, not because he had determined if the administration officials had done something bad.

Amber Richer, a lawyer from the Department of Justice that represents the Trump administration, assured judge Boasberg that the government was taking measures to preserve messages from the signal chat in question.

“These agencies are certainly working to fulfill their obligations pursuant to the Federal Records Act,” said Richer.

In past administrations, national archivists have written letters to try to do it enforce the law on the presidential registers and the Federal Records Act. During the Biden administration, the national archives He postponed a survey on the management of documents by Trump at the Department of Justice.

Trump fired the nation archivist in February and appointed Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, as a reciting archivist. Mr. Rubio was among those who participated in Signal’s chat with messages that disappeared.

“In my opinion, they completely cooperated Nara and the role of the archiveist,” said Weismann.

The concerns about the growing use of the signal and other messaging apps that disappear are not new. They existed during the first administration of Trump, when the citizens of the Group for responsibility and ethics in Washington filed a cause that affirmed that the officials of the White House were using apps as Signal and trust to eliminate messages in violation of the law on presidential registers.

During the Biden administration, the IT and infrastructure security agency the use of the signal is recommendedWriting that it was a “best practice” to “adopt a free messaging demand for safe communications that guarantee end-to-end encryption, such as signal or similar apps”.

But this week’s news pushed the messaging app to the attention of the public.

The best Trump officials had convened a group chat to discuss air attacks in Yemen, but Michael Waltz, the national security councilor, has added erroneously Jeffrey GoldbergThe editor of the Atlantic, to the group. In the chat, Hegseth revealed specific operational details two hours before the US troops launched attacks against the Houthi militia in Yemen.

Some messages have been set to automatically delete in a week or four weeks, Goldberg reported.

“There have been legal obligations by all members of that chat to fulfill their responsibilities of conservation of the registers,” said Jason R. Baron, professor at the College of Information at the University of Maryland.

He said that the systems to automatically preserve messages are not simply in place for apps how to report how they are for and -mail. When the congress updated the Presidential Records Act and the Federal Records Act in 2014 to include electronic messaging, the ephemeral apps were not used pervasively in the government. The laws on registers leave people to take measures to ensure that messages are kept.

“Automated e -mail e -mail is taken care of in most agencies because they are under mandate to preserve the government’s registers electronically,” said Baron. “Electronic messaging is under the same mandate, but it is still the wild Wild West in terms of conformity, since the agencies have generally not taken measures to automate the ways to preserve these records”.

Karoline Leavitt, the press secretary of the White House, said that Signal was an “approved” app for the use of the government and “the safest and most efficient way to communicate”, especially when people could not be in the same room.

“This is a first step in the right direction,” Chukwu Chioma, interim executive director of American Overyight, of the commitment of the Trump administration to preserve the registers, said chioma. “But we will have to go on, because you cannot believe what the administration says. You have to look at what it does.”

Alan Feuer Contributed relationships.