Trump Defeats Court Challenge Over Message-Deleting Apps

  • Judge acknowledges problem but tosses lawsuit on technicality
  • CREW sued White House under Presidential Record Act last year
Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
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President Donald Trump defeated a watchdog group’s court challenge to his administration’s use of instant-messaging applications that automatically erase their contents.

In its lawsuit filed last year, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington -- or CREW -- complained that White House staffers were using applications known as Signal and Confide. The former allows users to set a time limit after which messages will delete themselves, while the latter enables a recipient to wipe one with the wave of a finger.