Watchdog agency withdrew request for Secret Service text messages

(KYMA, KECY/ NBC News) - New documents obtained by the January 6th Committee show a request for Secret Service text messages was later withdrawn.

Secret Service text messages sent around the day of the Capitol riot were requested by the Department of Homeland Security's watchdog agency in February 2021, but an e-mail between officials from DHS from five months later rescinded that request.

Those text messages were later found to have been deleted by the time the January 6th Committee requested them last month.

Secret Service officials have said the messages were wiped as part of a planned phone systems migration.

The missing text messages are now calling into question whether the secret service took steps to actively obscure the investigation into events of January 6th.