DOGE officials instructed to disable Signal's automatic message deletion feature immediately after US military plans were leaked via Signal

It has been revealed that employees of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have been instructed to disable

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/27/white-house-doge-signal-records-00254122

White House tells DOGE to save its Signal chats after leak and legal questions over its use | The Independent
https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/doge-save-signal-chats-leak-b2722897.html

It has been revealed that US military operational plans were leaked after Michael Waltz, a presidential adviser in the Trump administration, mistakenly invited the editor-in-chief of monthly magazine The Atlantic to a group chat on Signal, a messaging app used by government officials.

President Trump's aide accidentally leaks top-secret war plans, actual screenshots also released - GIGAZINE

Shortly after the leak of U.S. military operations via Signal, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth instructed DOGE employees to disable Signal's automatic message deletion feature, according to filings in a lawsuit challenging DOGE's record-keeping practices.

The new policy communicated to DOGE employees emphasizes that messages sent on personal devices and Signal must be saved and that Signal's auto-delete feature must be disabled. It states: 'If you receive a work-related message on a personal device, such as a text, Signal, or personal email address, be sure to capture and send that message to your work device (e.g., take a screenshot and forward it).'

It is unclear whether the new policy for DOGE employees is related to the recent leak of military operations via Signal.

DOGE, led by Musk, has been pressured to release details of its activities, arguing that it is 'exempt from disclosure,' but the federal judge in the case has ordered DOGE to comply with public records requests that typically apply to agencies other than the White House. DOGE's notification of Signal's message retention policy to employees was revealed in court documents submitted by DOGE in response to the public records request.

The lawsuit challenging DOGE's record-retention practices points out that DOGE employees use Signal in their work and may already be automatically deleting many records. The plaintiffs argue that DOGE's use of Signal's automatic message deletion feature violates federal records retention laws, but the Department of Justice argues that 'there is no reason to believe that DOGE employees are deleting the messages, and that they are being maintained in accordance with the Presidential Records Act like other White House documents.'