Image Credit: Yasin Ozturk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images 
Secret Service agents deleted texts sent during the insurrection at the US Capitol, despite requests from Congress and federal investigators that they be preserved.
Many Secret Service text messages sent around the time of the riot were ‘erased as part of a device-replacement program,’ the agency confirmed Tuesday in a letter sent in response to a subpoena from the House Jan. 6 committee.
Secret Service phones were migrated to a new system in the weeks after the 2021 attack. The agency left it up to individual agents to decide what electronic records to keep and what to delete during the process.
The deletion of the messages has raised the prospect of lost evidence that could shed further light on then-President Donald Trump’s actions during the insurrection, particularly after testimony about his confrontation with security as he tried to join supporters at the Capitol.
The agency claims ‘the insinuation that the Secret Service maliciously deleted text messages following a request is false.’
The National Archives on Tuesday requested more information about the ‘potential unauthorized deletion’ of texts and has given the agency 30 days to reveal which records were purged and the circumstances under which they were lost.