A nonpartisan federal watchdog on Tuesday sued members of President Donald Trump's national security team who were part of a group chat that accidentally added a journalist, which included the sharing of sensitive information.

Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic's editor-in-chief, was accidentally added to a chain last week containing messages from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, National Security Adviser Michael Waltz, Vice President JD Vance, and 15 other senior national security officials. The discussion regarded the Defense Department's strike plans on the Houthis in Yemen.

The watchdog American Oversight filed the lawsuit, which asked a judge to rule that messages and communications sent via Signal when conducting official business are subject to the Federal Records Act, NBC News reported. 

“Messages in the Signal chat about official government actions, including, but not limited to, national security deliberations, are federal records and must be preserved in accordance with federal statutes, and agency directives, rules, and regulations,” the lawsuit stated. 

“Defendants’ use of Signal presents a substantial risk that they have used and continue to use Signal in other contexts, thereby creating records that are subject to the [Federal Records Act] and/or the [Freedom of Information Act], but are not being preserved as required by those statutes," the lawsuit added.

The lawsuit also claimed that under current State Department and Treasury Department recordkeeping rules, officials are not required to send Signal messages to their official email accounts, which bars the public from obtaining the records under the Freedom of Information Act. 

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.