"Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi objected to the letter Thursday night, saying: “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 OIG in every respect — whether it be interviews, documents, emails, or texts.” He said the Secret Service had started to reset its mobile devices to factory settings in January 2021 “as part of a pre-planned, three-month system migration.” In that process, some data was lost."

 The above headline is a merger of the final two paragraphs of an AP feed carried by Seattle Times, July 14. The item began, in its two opening paragraphs -

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secret Service agents deleted text messages sent and received around the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol even after an inspector general requested them as part of an investigation into the insurrection, the government watchdog has found.

The Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General, in a letter obtained by The Associated Press, said the messages between Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, 2021, were erased “as part of a device-replacement program.” The erasure came after the watchdog office requested records of electronic communications between the agents as part of its probe into events surrounding the Jan. 6 attack, the letter said.

Readers are urged to consider the story in the context of Jan. 6 Congressional hearings, where recently Secret Service matters appeared in witness testimony.

It is unfortunate the deleted evidence is no longer available to the DHS IG, and others.