Watchdog says Secret Service deleted Jan. 6 text messages

By FARNOUSH AMIRI
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A government watchdog has found that Secret Service agents deleted text messages sent and received around the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol after an inspector general requested them as part of the investigation into the insurrection. That is according to a letter obtained by The Associated Press. The letter from the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General informs Congress that it has been informed that many Secret Service messages between Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, 2021, were erased “as part of a device-replacement program.” Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi says, “The insinuation that the Secret Service maliciously deleted text messages following a request is false.”