The Secret Service has been asked by a government watchdog to stop its internal investigation.
The inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Secret Service, made the demand in a letter late Wednesday after notifying lawmakers earlier this month that the agency appeared to have erased text messages.
The National Archives ordered the Secret Service to conduct an internal review of whether any texts went missing and whether they could be reconstructed.
The Secret Service received a letter from the Department of Homeland Security. Agency spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement that they had informed the January 6th Select Committee of the Inspector General's request and would conduct a legal review to make sure they didn't clash with each other.
The National Archives wanted the Secret Service to look into the matter.
The Secret Service must send a report to the NARA within 30 days of this letter if it is found that any text messages have been deleted.
The requirements for the report were outlined.
A complete description of the records affected, a statement of the exact circumstances surrounding the deletion of messages, and a statement of the safeguards established to prevent further loss of documentation are included in the report.
The DHS Office of Inspector General launched a criminal investigation into the matter, according to NBC.
The Secret Service may have violated public records law when it mishandled records relating to the attack on the Capitol, according to the House committee.
Chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said that the procedure for preserving content prior to the purge may have been contrary to federal records retention requirements.
In response to a subpoena it issued last week, the panel only received one text from the agency.
The letter the Secret Service sent to the committee was released by the committee.
The letter gives the agency's most detailed explanation to date.
The agency had a migration to Microsoft and was ordered to install Intune on their phones.
The Secret Service did not retain any text messages that were requested by the OIG.
It appears that it was left to agents to decide what records on their phones needed to be preserved.
The agents were told to keep any data.
All Secret Service employees are expected to preserve any government records, including electronic messages that may be created during text messages.
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