After railing against Hillary Clinton's emails — Ken Cuccinelli's text messages disappeared: watchdog group

Republicans are still attacking Hillary Clinton for "her emails," and yet, when it came to Donald Trump's administration, failed Virginia gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli failed to properly preserve government documents as required by the Federal Records Act.

The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) announced on Wednesday that they are suing over missing documents that the Secret Service, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defense, Army and National Archives have all been unable to obtain by the former deputy DHS secretary.

"The missing records include text messages from top Trump administration officials at DHS, the Secret Service, DOD and the Army that were improperly deleted after being requested as part of investigations into the January 6, 2021 attack on the United States Capitol," said CREW in a release. "They also include government records from Cuccinelli’s personal phone that currently remain, unlawfully, outside of the government’s custody. The agencies have known for months about the records being unlawfully deleted, but have failed to enforce the FRA through the Attorney General, as the law requires."

“Missing and destroyed federal records from top officials undermine government transparency and accountability, and it is imperative that agencies are complying with record-keeping laws,” CREW senior VP Donald Sherman said in a statement. “The loss of these particular federal records would leave a major gap in the factual record concerning the January 6th attack on the Capitol, impeding efforts to obtain answers and accountability for an unprecedented assault on American democracy.”

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The Federal Records Act is a mandatory requirement for all federal agencies that require "an agency head and [the] Archivist to take enforcement action through the Attorney General whenever they become aware of records being unlawfully removed or destroyed” and “leave no discretion to determine which cases to pursue.”

The information that disappeared from Cuccinelli's phone could be part of the information necessary in the investigation into what happened behind the scenes during the Jan. 6 attack on Congress. Documents revealed that the Secret Service was given ample warning about the violence that ultimately unfolded. Secret Service is under the purview of the Department of Homeland Security, which has prompted questions about whether the Secret Service told DHS about the planned violence and they failed to inform local law enforcement, the Capitol Police and other officials meeting at the building that day.

Former Trump Homeland Security official Miles Taylor said he believes the former president wanted members of Congress to be killed on January 6 so that he could declare martial law and stay in power. Investigators are attempting to discern whether or not that assessment is true and if the Secret Service and Homeland Security were part of an overall attempt to encourage more violence.

“These missing records are the property of the American public, and the government has a legal duty to recover them,” said Sherman. “Government records must be preserved or retrieved when removed from federal custody, especially when they are critical to issues of public concern.”

In 2015, Cuccinelli accused Clinton of breaking the law.

Read the full court filings here.