Newsletter:

Who Deleted the CIA Director’s
Signal Messages?
[link removed]

Our lawsuit against the Trump administration for its use of Signal to communicate about military plans uncovered damning new evidence this week of the administration’s disdain for federal record-keeping rules and basic accountability.

The revelations were revealed in the court-ordered supplemental declarations filed earlier this week by Trump agencies regarding their efforts to preserve messages from the Signal group chat. The declaration from the CIA revealed that not only did the agency fail to preserve any messages, but that someone had proactively deleted messages — potentially even after a court order.

We put together a timeline ([link removed]) of the CIA’s actions alongside the various moments in our lawsuit, including the judge’s March 27 order that messages be preserved. Not only did the CIA not initiate action on saving the messages until March 31, the day of the court’s deadline, but there were also apparently two administrative setting changes on the days before and after the order was issued.
* We don’t know what those changes were, or who made them, but the modification or deletion of electronically stored information that is the subject of litigation risks violating the federal rules of procedure, established case law, and a court’s direct order telling them to preserve evidence — and carries the potential for sanctions.
* Here, we break down the findings ([link removed]) from the latest court filings, and explain the key unanswered questions we still have, such as who had deleted the messages from the CIA director’s device, and what exactly those setting changes were.
* “The administration’s brazen indifference to our national security and the safety of our men and women in uniform in this matter is now compounded by its blatant disregard for a co-equal branch of the government,” said our Chioma Chukwu.

This all comes as the Trump administration is facing contempt of court ([link removed]) for resisting orders related to its harsh immigration and deportation actions, including its refusal to seek the return of Maryland man Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was wrongly deported ([link removed]) to a prison in El Salvador.
* Beyond defiance of court orders, President Trump’s testing of the bounds of executive power has led to numerous other abuses of office, among them his attacks on the legal profession.
* Trump has issued several executive actions targeting specific law firms for their hiring decisions or for their work on issues in opposition to his policies.

The effort to punish firms for their work is a direct threat to First Amendment rights and a brazen attack on the rule of law. We joined more than 20 other organizations in filing amicus briefs in support of three large firms that have challenged the president’s retributive actions, outlining how those abuses of power create a chilling effect across the entire legal profession. Read more here. ([link removed])

Other Stories We’re Following

Trump Administration Accountability
* Head of IRS being ousted amid Treasury’s power struggle with Elon Musk (New York Times ([link removed]) )
* Two top Pentagon officials placed on leave in leak probe (Politico ([link removed]) )
* The cabinet secretary who wants his cookies freshly baked (Atlantic ([link removed]) )
* Inside Trump’s plan to halt hundreds of regulations (New York Times ([link removed]) )
* Trump appointee asked IRS to review audit of MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell ​​(Washington Post ([link removed]) )
* Donald Trump's top prosecutor blames 'crazy black ladies' for getting fired (Newsweek ([link removed]) )
* Internal budget document reveals extent of Trump’s proposed health cuts (Washington Post ([link removed]) )
* ‘We are flying blind’: RFK Jr.’s cuts halt data collection on abortion, cancer, HIV and more (Politico ([link removed]) )

Agency Changes & Takeovers
* Consumer financial watchdog lays off most of its employees (Washington Post ([link removed]) )
* HHS systems are in danger of collapsing, workers say (Wired ([link removed]) )
* Trump official who oversaw closure of USAID has left State Department (Wall Street Journal ([link removed]) )
* States vie for D.C.-area federal agencies as relocation plan deadline nears (Washington Post ([link removed]) )
* The Social Security Administration is gutting regional staff and shifting all public communications to X (Wired ([link removed]) )
* State tells employees to report on one another for ‘anti-Christian bias’ (Politico ([link removed]) )

DOGE
* DOGE has access to sensitive Labor Department data on immigrants and farm workers (Wired ([link removed]) )
* DOGE sought to assign a team to an independent nonprofit group (Washington Post ([link removed]) )
* A whistleblower's disclosure details how DOGE may have taken sensitive labor data (NPR ([link removed]) )
* ICE, DOGE seek sensitive Medicare data as immigration crackdown intensifies (Washington Post ([link removed]) )
* Inside the DOGE immigration task force (Politico ([link removed]) )
* Pentagon’s ‘SWAT team of nerds’ resigns en masse (Politico ([link removed]) )

Voting Rights
* Trump’s order seeks to force states to buy costly new voting machines (Washington Post ([link removed]) )
* Conservative states are building their own voter database (StateScoop ([link removed]) )
* Key federal elections agency moving forward with Trump’s anti-voting order (Democracy Docket ([link removed]) )

In the States
* Trump sues Maine over transgender athletes in schools amid funding threats (Guardian ([link removed]) )
* Texas House approves push to award Attorney General Ken Paxton back pay (Texas Tribune ([link removed]) )
* Michael Gableman's career shows how court went hyper political (Wisconsin Watch ([link removed]) )

National News
* Supreme Court to hear arguments on Trump plan to end birthright citizenship (New York Times ([link removed]) )
* ACLU sues Defense Department schools over book bans (New York Times ([link removed]) )
* An emboldened anti-abortion faction wants women who have abortions to face criminal charges (Associated Press ([link removed]) )

Immigration
* Trump administration directs judges to deny asylum without hearings (New York Times ([link removed]) )
* Trump is spending billions on border security. Some residents living there lack basic resources (ProPublica ([link removed]) )
* Memo shows U.S. can send migrants without criminal records to Guantanamo, despite Trump's promise to hold ‘the worst’ there (CBS News ([link removed]) )
* Team Trump is gaming out how to ship U.S. citizens to El Salvador (Rolling Stone ([link removed]) )
* This company's surveillance tech makes immigrants 'easy pickings' for Trump (New York Times ([link removed]) )
* Trump authorizes US military to take control of land at US-Mexico border (Guardian ([link removed]) )
* Military contractors pitch unprecedented prison plan for detained immigrants (Politico ([link removed]) )

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