At Your Service...

And so it’s come to pass that texts requested by the Inspector General to the Secret Service that were written during January 5-7 were all deleted after the request was made.  And no backups were made as required by the Secret Service

This could have been part of a normal process as the Secret Service was preparing to do a changeover of its devices.  That is absolutely possible.  And it’s also possible that not backing up the phones could have been a mistake.  It’s also possible that the letter naming me starting shortstop of the Chicago Cubs got accidentally shredded before it was sent.  Given how bad the Cubs are playing this year, I would suggest that the shortstop screw-up is more likely.

If this was the other way around, and it was deleted texts by the Secret Service that the Trump administration was requesting in their investigation into having been bugged during Barack Obama’s presidency, I’m not sure we could even imagine the outraged screams to deep hell and cries for a dozen Congressional investigations that would have reverberated through the nooks of Washington, D.C., and across the country.  And perhaps even been justified.  To be clear, this doesn’t make the assumptions of yesterday’s revelations true – after all, the Trump administration have been screaming about things untrue for five years, including fake-fraudulent elections.  And being bugged by Barack Obama.  But it does put the deleted texts in context.

It's also worth noting something that I didn’t hear mentioned in any of the discussion of the deleted texts.  It’s that the former head of Trump’s security detail, Tony Ornato, widely described as a person deeply loyal to Trump who was known to regularly lie, was later promoted by Trump to be the Assistant Director of the United States Secret Service Office of Training – a position he still holds. 

I don’t know if Mr. Ornato is involved in any way in the deleted texts.  I also know that he isn’t.  I only know that Tony Ornato is widely described as a person deeply loyal to Trump who was known to regularly lie, and he was later promoted by Trump to be the Assistant Director of the United States Secret Service Office of Training – a position he still holds. 

In fairness to the Secret Service, they released a forceful statement deny the complaint by the Inspector General, while saying they’d be putting out an explanation shortly.  Hours later, they still hadn’t made their explanation, but that’s understandable since they’ve only had about a year to come up with one.  Then again, Secret Service agents Ornato and Bobby Engel also angrily denied the statements involving them and Trump on January 6 that were made by witness Cassady Hutchinson and said they’d be willing to testify to that.  As of this point, they have yet to do so, nor say anything on the subject under oath.  On the other hand, Ms. Hutchinson did testify under oath.

I have no idea what happened with the deleted Secret Service texts from January 5-7.  I suspect we’ll find out.  Most digital material in the ozone tends not to disappear and is recoverable.

The one positive thing in all this story, though, is that we now know why the Secret Service is called “secret.”