The insinuation that the Secret Service maliciously deleted text messages following a request is false. In fact, the Secret Service has been fully cooperating with the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General (DHS OIG) in every respect whether it be interviews, documents, emails, or texts.
First, in January 2021, before any inspection was opened by OIG on this subject, the Secret Service began to reset its mobile phones to factory settings as part of a pre-planned, three-month system migration. In that process, data resident on some phones was lost.
DHS OIG requested electronic communications for the first time on Feb. 26, 2021,afterthe migration was well under way. The Secret Service notified DHS OIG of the loss of certain phones data, but confirmed to OIG that none of the texts it was seeking had been lost in the migration.
Second, DHS OIGs allegation regarding DHSs cooperation with its investigation is neither correct nor new. To the contrary, DHS OIG has previously alleged that its employees were not granted appropriate and timely access to materials due to attorney review. DHS has repeatedly and publicly debunked this allegation, including in response to OIGs last two semi-annual reports to Congress. It is unclear why OIG is raising this issue again.
Source: U.S. Secret Service