“DOD and Army conveyed to Plaintiff that when an employee separates from DOD or Army he or she turns in the government-issued phone, and the phone is wiped.
For those custodians no longer with the agency, the text messages were not preserved and therefore could not be searched,” the agencies wrote in a March court filing.
Both had their phones reset following the inauguration, losing any texts from Jan. 6 in the process.
The Secret Service contends any text messages that might be missing were lost through a software transition.
The suit sought the military leaders’ communications with former President Trump, former Vice President Mike Pence and Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows.
It’s the second time in less than a week that Garland has been called upon to intervene in a Jan. 6-related matter.
Durbin also asked Garland to “step in and get to the bottom of what happened to these text messages and hold accountable those who are responsible.”. »