Officials at UT Austin used chat apps to hide internal communications in violation of state law, according to a motion filed in a Travis County court.
Jarrid Cornell was arrested after interrupting speakers during a pro-Israel event on campus in January 2024. In the motion filed last week, his lawyer, George Lobb, accused UT officials of actively hiding communications about the case by using apps that can hide or delete messages.
Lobb asked the court to order UT to turn over texts leading up to, during and after the event from staff's personal devices.
He argued "high-level administrators" at UT have been "instructing employees to change settings in commercial messaging apps on their personal devices so that the messages ... delete automatically."
"They don't get to claim privilege. In this situation, there is no privilege for them."
KUT asked UT whether the university had a policy on the use of apps like Signal, which has an auto-delete feature for messages, or iMessage, which has an "invisible ink" function that makes texts illegible in court or open-records requests.
A university spokesperson declined to speak about the allegations.
Lobb said UTPD bodycam video of the arrest shows officials texting, "and they're not talking about dinner," he said. He requested those texts, and he got "bupkis."
"I don't have a single one of those text messages," Lobb said. "Nothing."
Lobb said he believes texts were squirreled away or deleted outright because they "were publicly embarrassing" to UT.
Under the Texas Public Information Act, any official business done on a personal device is public information and shouldn't be deleted. UT had argued the texts are privileged and aren't relevant to the case. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton agreed and asked the court to throw out Lobb's request.
Lobb is now asking the court to force UT officials to provide the texts or prove in court that the university doesn't use platforms like Signal, the app that recently landed the Trump administration in hot water.
Lobb said UT is trying to "hide the ball" and that the university started using the apps in response to requests from the media about pro-Palestinian demonstrations on UT campus. More than 100 people were arrested at protests last spring with the help of state police after pressure from lawmakers.
"What they're doing is wrong," Lobb said. "They don't get to claim privilege. In this situation, there is no privilege for them."
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