In its internal investigation into erased text messages sent by agents on or around January 6, 2021, relating to Donald Trump’s actions and the domestic terrorist attack on Congress, the Secret Service has identified ten agents who deleted texts that may concern operations during that time, CNN reports.

In all, the agency was able to recover records for the text messages of 24 different agents.  They were only able to recover one text string that was tangentially related to official activities that day.  Ten people sent no text messages on official devices during that time, and three had personal messages, according to metadata, presumably identified through data provided by the carriers.

The texts were sent by ten agents who were either assigned to the protection details for Donald Trump or Vice President Mike Pence.  It is unclear why the Secret Service focused on these two dozen agents, but it could be that they were personnel on or leading the two details.

The discovery was part of the Secret Service Inspector General’s investigation into the missing communications, which was halted July 20th when it was notified that the Inspector General for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Secret Service, had opened a criminal investigation.

Congress and various federal agencies are looking into the deletion of these records, which may fall under the Federal Records Act which requires the preservation of communications.  The texts were also clearly part of the various investigations into the January 6th domestic terrorist attack and the attempts by the Trump cabal to undermine the Constitution and reinstall Trump to a second term in the White House even though he lost the 2020 election.

Investigators are also looking into other means of communication the Secret Service agents may have been using, such as encrypted apps or apps that automatically erased messages, to see if the agents were intentionally trying to cover up their knowledge of and/or participation in the Trump camp’s plot to send armed, violent mob to stop the certification of the Electoral College votes.