WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Thursday said he will order the Trump administration to preserve records of a text message chat in which senior national security officials discussed sensitive details of plans for a U.S. military strike against Yemen’s Houthis.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg said during a hearing that he’ll issue a temporary restraining order barring administration officials from destroying messages sent over the encrypted messaging app Signal.

A nonprofit watchdog, American Oversight, requested the order. A government attorney said the administration already was taking steps to collect and save the messages.

The Atlantic published the entire Signal chat on Wednesday. Its editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, had been added to a discussion that included Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, national security adviser Michael Waltz, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Vice President JD Vance and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.