House January 6 panel subpoenas Secret Service for allegedly deleted text messages

The subpoena is the first to an executive branch agency in investigation focused on possible erasure of communications

The House select committee investigating the Capitol attack has issued a subpoena to the US Secret Service for text messages from 5 January and 6 January 2021 understood to have been erased, pursuing what investigators suspect might be an instance of corruptly destroyed records.

The subpoena issued late on Friday - the first to an executive branch agency - compelled the production of messages and after-action reports concerning the attack as part of a sweeping records demand aiming to establish the circumstances around the erasure of some communications and obtain any that remain.