Michael Steele (MSNBC)
MSNBC's Michael Steele blasted the U.S. Secret Service for destroying text messages after Congress requested records of those communications.
Lawmakers asked the agency for text messages from Jan. 5 and 6, 2021, that same month, but all but a single one of those were deleted as part of a planned phone replacement program on Jan. 27, 2021, and the former chair of the Republican National Committee told "Morning Joe" that appeared to violate federal law.
"This was something that was done deliberately," Steele said. "They had the warnings. I mean, irrespective of the warnings, you're a significant law enforcement agency within the federal government. You know damn well what the processes and procedures are with respect to the retention of documents. You know there's a federal document retention act that you're subject to, just like every other organ of government, so the fact they're hemming and hawing and talking about, oh, well, the process had started and it was underway, no -- that's nonsense."
"So they've got a lot to account for here," Steele added. "There should be some heads that roll. There's something -- I mean, look, what are you trying to hide here? What should we be knowing that is related to those documents, and now you're telling us they're gone forever? Well, we'll see just how gone they are, but the reality of it is, the Secret Service is in the middle of this right now."
Watch the video below or at this link.
07 21 2022 06 01 51 www.youtube.com
Report typos and corrections to corrections@rawstory.com.
For customer support contact support@rawstory.com.
