Judge Who Ruled Against Deportations of Venezuelan Terrorists Assigned Signal Case

The judge who ordered that flights carrying suspected Tren de Aragua gangbangers to El Salvador must return to the U.S. was assigned a lawsuit against Trump administration national security officials regarding a Signal chat.

A far-left government watchdog is suing Trump administration national security personnel for discussing the forthcoming strike on the Houthis in a Signal chat, the subject of a torrent of news reporting this week. District Judge James Boasberg, an Obama appointee, was randomly assigned to the case.

American Oversight, a non-partisan watchdog which routinely opposes Republicans, is saying national security adviser Mike Waltz and other personnel violated the Federal Records Act by using the encrypted messaging app Signal to discuss attack plans.

This comes after the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, broke a story saying Waltz added him to a group chat called “Houthi PC small group” on March 15 that included Vice President JD Vance, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, chief of staff Susie Wiles, and other officials.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on X that no war plans or classified material had been discussed.

In a Biden-era document, the federal office in charge of ensuring cybersecurity cited the use of encrypted messaging app Signal as a “best practice” for “highly targeted” government officials.

Boasberg, a 2011 appointee of then-President Barack Obama to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, issued a restraining order against Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1789 to deport alleged Tren de Aragua gang members.

Boasberg barred the Trump administration from deporting “all non-citizens who are subject to the [Alien Enemies Act] proclamation” for at least 14 days.

“I think there’s clearly irreparable harm here given that these folks will be deported and many – or the vast majority – to prison or back to Venezuela where they face persecution or worse,” he said.

The 238 illegal immigrants on the deportation flights were members of designated terrorist organizations Tren de Aragua and MS-13, according to the Trump administration.

Prominent Republicans in Congress are calling for the impeachment of Democrat-appointed judges amid a slew of injunctions against President Donald Trump’s executive actions.

American Oversight, the group bringing the lawsuit, is also suing President Donald Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency and has attacked several Trump cabinet nominees, including FBI Director Kash Patel, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins.

The watchdog launched an investigation in January into “the national rise in legislation targeting gender-affirming care as part of its larger investigation into attacks on LGBTQ+ rights.”

This included several public records requests from Texas officials about Texas’ ban on “minors’ access to gender-affirming care,” a euphemism for irreversible transgender medical interventions for children.

On March 24, American Oversight announced an investigation into Republican Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s contacts with “far-right anti-abortion rights groups” including Missouri Right to Life, Project Veritas, and The Heritage Foundation.

American Oversight did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment.

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