From Politico:
Judge targeted by Trump is assigned to Signalgate lawsuit
Judge James Boasberg will preside over a case alleging that Trump administration officials violated federal record-keeping laws when they used Signal to discuss military plans.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg — the object of President Donald Trump's fury for blocking his effort to summarily deport Venezuelan nationals using wartime powers — just got a second crack at the administration's handling of national security: Signalgate.
Boasberg on Wednesday morning was assigned to preside over a lawsuitalleging that Trump cabinet secretaries and national security aides violated federal record-keeping laws when they used a Signal chat group to discuss a planned military strike in Yemen — and inadvertently included an Atlantic journalist in the group.
The twist of legal fate arrived just as the scandal exploded further with the Atlantic's release of the full text exchange — in which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth previewed, with specific references to timing and weapons, an attack on Houthi militants. The exchange, initiated by National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, included Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe.
A spokesperson for Boasberg confirmed that the case was assigned to him through the court's typical random assignment process. There are 20 judges on the federal district court bench in Washington, D.C.
The assignment of the case to Boasberg comes just two days after the Trump administration, in the Venezuela deportation case, invoked the "state secrets" privilege to refuse to share details with the Obama-appointed judge about the timing of deportation flights to El Salvador.
Boasberg is pressing the administration for details about the flights to determine whether officials violated his order earlier this month barring Trump from deporting people under the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 law last invoked during World War II. But administration lawyers argued that "disclosure would pose reasonable danger to national security and foreign affairs."
Rubio, notably, submitted a declaration to Boasberg justifying the state secrets invocation, saying that sharing details about the flights with Boasber—even under seal or in a classified setting—would endanger national security.
"The more widely information is shared the greater the risk that the information will reach the public (even if unintentionally)," Rubio wrote.
Now, Rubio is a defendant in the Signalgate lawsuit brought by American Oversight, a left-leaning government watchdog group. He is being sued not only for his involvement in the text exchange but also for his dual position as acting head of the National Archives, which is responsible for preserving records used by government officials in the course of their work. The Atlantic reported that Waltz set the text thread to automatically delete.
Boasberg prompted a furious backlash from Trump and his allies when he halted the administration's deportation efforts earlier this month, ruling that the administration appeared to be violating due process requirements by tagging Venezuelan nationals as terrorists and rushing them onto planes with virtually no chance to contest the designation.
Trump called for Boasberg's impeachment, a call that was echoed by some members of Congress, and has unleashed near-daily attacks on the judge
