“We’re still in that process of determining what records exist,” a DOJ attorney told the judge.

The order came as part of the initial phase of a lawsuit brought this week by the left-leaning nonprofit group American Oversight in response to the Atlantic’s explosive story about the Cabinet members’ use of Signal to discuss imminent plans to carry out airstrikes against the Houthis in Yemen.

The complaint alleged that the officials were not properly preserving Signal messages and that some were being erased entirely through the auto-delete function, in violation of the Federal Records Act.

Boasberg asked for a status update by March 31. As he began giving his order, he said, “What I’m going to do—and don’t worry, it’ll be in writing,” while side-eyeing the DOJ, which has alleged in a separate, contentious case that only Boasberg’s written order, not his oral order, is binding.

The case marks the second one that Boasberg, a former President Barack Obama appointee and the chief judge of Washington’s district court, has been randomly assigned that implicates the Trump administration and questions the sensitivity of national security information.

The judge has become a top target of Trump’s attacks after Boasberg temporarily enjoined the president from carrying out deportations under the Alien Enemies Act, a powerful wartime law.

The president and his allies have cast doubt on whether Boasberg was randomly assigned to the Signal case. Trump wrote Thursday on social media that the case was Boasberg’s fourth case related to Trump, which is “statistically IMPOSSIBLE,” he said, despite Boasberg’s chambers confirming Wednesday that the judge’s assignment was made randomly.

Boasberg addressed during the hearing what he said was heightened public interest in the assignment process, saying that he was, in fact, randomly assigned to the case and that “random assignment is accomplished by an automated system.”

JUDGE JAMES BOASBERG, WHO HALTED TRUMP’S DEPORTATIONS, ASSIGNED TO SIGNAL CASE

Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor, told the Washington Examiner that, based on his familiarity with the D.C. court system, Trump’s insinuation that Boasberg’s assignment was more than coincidence was “absolutely untrue.”

“[Boasberg is] such a by-the-book kind of judge, pretty rule-bound, that he would never entertain the thought of doing that,” Tobias said, adding that “it’s all within the control of the clerk of court, and that person makes the assignments, and, I think, has a fair amount of insulation from the judges for appearances and reality. You really want the assignments to be blind.”