Jan. 6 Panel Tells Secret Service to Keep Seeking Missing Texts

The US Secret Service may have violated the Federal Records Act by not preserving text messages of 24 employees from the day before and during the Capitol attack, leaders of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot said.

Chair Bennie Thompson and Vice Chair Liz Cheney said Wednesday in a statement that “every effort” must be made to retrieve texts that the Secret Service says were inadvertently erased during an equipment upgrade that began on Jan. 27, 2021.

“The procedure for preserving content prior to this purge appears to have been contrary to federal records retention requirements and may ...