A federal judge has just ordered Secretary of State Marco Rubio to collect and hand over Signal messages belonging to top officials in the Trump administration. 

Judge James Boasberg, Fox News reports, gave the order on Friday.

The order was specifically given to Rubio because he is the acting archivist.

At first glance, this may seem like a loss for the Trump administration, but it actually might be a win. To understand why, please read on.

Here's what's going on:

This relates to the infamous story that the Atlantic published earlier in President Donald Trump's administration, in which it revealed Trump's plan to launch an airstrike on the Houthis. You will likely remember that an Atlantic reporter was able to essentially "listen in" on the conversation that was taking place between Trump officials.

Subsequently, a watchdog group brought a lawsuit against five of Trump's officials. The group, which has left-wing ties, is arguing that the Trump officials, in using Signal, violated the Federal Records Act.

This act concerns the maintenance of federal records.

Fox explains:

The judge said American Oversight, the left-leaning watchdog that brought the lawsuit, made a strong case that the Cabinet officials have used Signal, an encrypted messaging app, to communicate for work purposes and that they have allowed the messages to auto-delete, likely rendering them permanently lost.

Accordingly, Boasberg has ordered Rubio to hand over whatever Signal messages he has from these Trump officials so that the court can preserve them.

A loss?

Boasberg, however, did not stop there. He went on to say that his hands are essentially tied with regard to the messages that have already been deleted.

The Hill reports:

A federal judge said Friday it’s too late to order the recovery of already-deleted Signal messages from key members of President Trump’s Cabinet, largely rejecting a request from an oversight group to get involved.

The outlet goes on to explain how "Boasberg noted, American Oversight’s own 'emphatically stated' representation to the court was that destroyed Signal messages cannot be recovered and to issue the directive would be fruitless."

The judge added, "Although Plaintiff tries to walk that stance back — claiming in its Reply that recovery is feasible ‘[r]egardless of Signal’s statement of policy,’ — that belated assertion wilts in the face of its repeated claims to the contrary in both its Amended Complaint and Motion."

And, in addition to this, Boasberg also noted that Attorney General Pam Bondi has the discretion to ignore his request that Rubio hand over the remaining Signal messages. Accordingly, it would appear that Boasberg has closed the doors on American Oversight's lawsuit.