1. United States
2. Pa.
3. Letter

I am writing to demand immediate accountability for the serious breach of national security and public trust stemming from the recent incident in which senior U.S. officials—including the Vice President and Secretary of Defense—used a Signal group chat with auto-deleting messages to discuss military operations in Yemen. A journalist was mistakenly included in this conversation. This is not just an error—it is a reckless and unacceptable failure of protocol. These officials knowingly used an encrypted messaging app not approved for secure or classified communications and deliberately enabled disappearing messages, undermining federal recordkeeping laws. This conduct is not only irresponsible—it likely violates both the Presidential Records Act (PRA) and Federal Records Act (FRA), which require the preservation of all communications related to government functions and decision-making. The courts have already seen warning signs. In CREW v. Trump, plaintiffs argued that encrypted, auto-deleting communications by executive officials violated the PRA. While the court declined to compel enforcement in that case, it made clear that this kind of behavior dangerously skirts legal obligations and prevents transparency. (Case summary) Enough is enough. I urge you to: 1. Publicly condemn this breach and demand accountability from those responsible. 2. Support a formal investigation into the use of auto-deleting apps for sensitive and potentially classified communications. 3. Introduce legislation explicitly banning the use of apps with disappearing messages for any official U.S. government business—especially matters of national security. This incident sets a dangerous precedent. If top officials can use encrypted, auto-deleting apps to make war plans behind closed doors—without consequence—we risk not only future leaks, but permanent damage to our democratic institutions. This is a test of whether Congress is willing to defend transparency and lawful governance. I urge you to act decisively.