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Yes. Workplace chats can become evidence in federal investigations when they are relevant and covered by applicable legal process or discovery obligations. But a message is not automatically disclosed or admissible just because it exists, and official sources reviewed do not establish that chat logs are increasingly used as courtroom exhibits.
Can Slack or Teams messages be used as evidence in a federal investigation?
They can. The Justice Department’s Justice Manual identifies instant messages and similar electronic communications as records that may be discoverable. Its guidance covers channels including email, texts and SMS, instant messages, voicemail, and pin-to-pin communications.
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That does not mean investigators seek every chat, that every responsive message will be disclosed, or that a message will be admitted at trial. Discoverability, relevance, preservation, the legal process used to obtain records, and admissibility are distinct questions; their answers depend on the case and the record.
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Identify potentially discoverable communications
For trial preparation, DOJ policy instructs federal prosecutors to seek exculpatory and impeachment information from the prosecution team. That team can include participating federal, state, and local officers and other government officials. In cases involving parallel proceedings, agencies, or multiple districts, its scope depends on the circumstances, including whether investigators work jointly, share resources or information, participate in one another’s inquiries, or coordinate charging decisions. An agency’s entire file does not automatically become criminal discovery merely because it is involved in a related matter.
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Preserve substantive messages in usable form
The Justice Manual tells prosecution-team members to preserve substantive electronic communications for review and possible disclosure, and to keep them in native electronic format when feasible. It also directs them to preserve all communications with lay witnesses. These instructions concern government personnel and the prosecution team; they are not a general workplace rule for every employee.
The manual’s standard for government communications is also explicit: “E-communications, like formal reports, should state facts accurately and completely; be professional in tone; and avoid witticism, careless commentary, opinion, or over-familiarity in tone.”
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What did DOJ and the FTC say about disappearing work chats?
On January 26, 2024, DOJ and the Federal Trade Commission announced updated preservation language for antitrust second requests, voluntary access letters, and compulsory legal process, including grand jury subpoenas. The update expressly addressed collaboration tools and ephemeral messaging. DOJ’s announcement page was updated February 6, 2025. This was an antitrust-process update, not a new blanket rule for every federal white-collar case.
The FTC says records in collaboration platforms were already within the scope of its document requests. It names Slack, Microsoft Teams, Signal, and Google Chat as examples of workplace tools, and notes that some applications allow or automatically enable messages to be destroyed. Depending on the circumstances, retention steps can include turning off auto-delete or stopping use of an application.
In the announcement, FTC Bureau of Competition Director Henry Liu said preservation responsibility applies to new collaboration and information-sharing tools, “even including tools that allow for messages to disappear via ephemeral messaging capabilities.” DOJ Antitrust Division Deputy Assistant Attorney General Manish Kumar said parties should preserve and produce responsive documents, including ephemeral-message data, and warned that failure to produce such documents may result in obstruction-of-justice charges. Both statements were made in the context of antitrust process.
Do companies have to preserve disappearing work chats?
The answer depends on the company’s circumstances and the applicable request, process, or preservation obligation. The DOJ/FTC antitrust guidance makes clear that an application’s auto-delete feature does not, by itself, put responsive records outside the scope of antitrust process. The FTC identifies disabling auto-deletion or ceasing use of an application as possible retention steps.
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DOJ corporate-prosecution guidance tells prosecutors evaluating a company’s compliance program to consider whether policies for personal devices and third-party communication platforms preserve business-related data and communications. It also identifies incomplete or delayed production as conduct that may impede an investigation. The guidance is a factor in prosecutors’ assessment; it does not establish that every company must use one retention setting or keep every message indefinitely.
What if messages are on an employee’s device or held by a provider?
Business communications may involve personal devices and third-party applications, so a company’s written policies and actual preservation practices matter to DOJ’s compliance-program assessment. A policy that does not address those channels may leave questions about whether business records can be retained and produced.
Provider obligations are a separate issue from a company’s retention practices and the government’s discovery duties. Under 18 U.S.C. § 2713, as set out in the 2023 U.S. Code edition, providers of electronic communication or remote computing services must comply with the Stored Communications Act chapter’s preservation, backup, or disclosure obligations for covered communications and records within their possession, custody, or control, regardless of where those records are located. The cited edition is from 2023; current application should be checked against later amendments and the specific legal process involved.
What should an organization check before a preservation request arrives?
The official guidance points to practical questions about whether relevant communications can be identified, retained, and retrieved—not to a preferred messaging product or a single universal retention policy.
- Where does business messaging happen? Include managed and employee-owned devices, as well as third-party platforms used for work.
- Can messages disappear? Identify auto-delete and other ephemeral-message settings, including settings that may be enabled by default.
- Can records be preserved in native format? DOJ’s prosecution-team guidance calls for native-format preservation when feasible; organizations can assess whether their systems and procedures make that possible.
- Do policies cover the tools people actually use? Compare written rules for personal devices and third-party applications with real workplace practices.
- Can the organization act on a request? Check whether responsible staff can identify the relevant accounts and channels and take appropriate retention steps when applicable process requires it.
These are operational checks drawn from DOJ and FTC guidance, not a substitute for assessing a particular legal hold, subpoena, or other process with counsel.
Is there evidence that chat logs are increasingly becoming courtroom exhibits?
The official sources cited here do not provide a case-count statistic showing how often workplace chat logs appear as exhibits in federal white-collar cases, or demonstrating an increase across cases. DOJ and the FTC described workplace use of collaboration and ephemeral-messaging tools as having increased in recent years, but supplied no figure or methodology. The supported conclusion is narrower: chats can be covered by discovery and preservation obligations, and DOJ and FTC have made their application to collaboration and ephemeral messaging explicit in antitrust process.
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