The Secret Service Texting Scandal Makes No Sense

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/07/secret-service-deleted-january-6-texts/670597/

by kergonath • 4 years ago

32 25 4 years ago

archive.org: https://web.archive.org/web/20220721223626/https://www.theat...

tonetheman• 4 years ago

It almost has to be the case that they were either helping or were guilty in some way. It is hard to think anything else sadly.

cable2600• 4 years ago

Something fishy is going on here. I remember Hillary Clinton did the same with her email server using Bleach Bit. Both sides destroy data.

FranksTV• 4 years ago

Hillary Clinton hadn't received an order from congress to preserve evidence in an ongoing investigation.

tunap3• 4 years ago

Um, using a private server for official correspondences doesn't really require a subpoena to be illegal.

GW had one, and his Admin said he was going to be murdered shortly before his private plane crashed.

Nothing new here. Politics, as usual.

jimmygrapes• 4 years ago

I feel like this is bait, but I'm taking anyway. Order from Congress, no, you're correct; but ordered by a federal judge: https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/DktRpt.pl?161905

It's not pay walled, per se. PACER is free up to a number of requests. If you don't have an account, make one. If you don't want to put forth that effort, then you are most certainly arguing in partisan and uninformed bad faith. I was going to link a free copy, before I realized the aforementioned bait.

DrewRWx• 4 years ago

That's just good opsec when you aren't under subpoena.

dementiapatien• 4 years ago

What, you mean like, wiped it with a cloth? throws head back and cackles

badrabbit5• 4 years ago

Do you guys evere delete your text? I can't remember ever doing so. It's annoying, why bother? It doesn't get in the way or bother you.

Both senders and recipients must be charged with violation of the presidential records act because it is unreasonable for both parties to delete a text without some explicit reason and given their roles they can't claim ignorance of such a law. This is a conspiracy. DHS taking over the investigation says a lot. I can't believe biden has done such a bad job at weeding out trump appointees. Even the justice department trump appointee is now prosecuting biden's son right before election season(who cares if he is guilty but this screams malicious prosecution).

powerhour• 4 years ago

I do delete texts, I don't like them taking up visual space. However, I wouldn't if I was a public servant doing public business on my phone. That'd be monstrous.

badrabbit5• 4 years ago

Wow, it's weird learning how other people do things very differntly. I'm the guy with 500 tabs open lol. I guess I'm always concerned about needing information and not having it because I deleted it. I try to adopt to the clutter and organize it when possible but I do organize things when they are part of a task.

tunap3• 4 years ago

(who cares if he is guilty but this screams malicious prosecution)

I care if it's prosecuting for illegal Burisma Holdings activities.

I don't care if it's for his penchant for drugs & strippers.

badrabbit5• 4 years ago

Care as in it is interesting? If biden sr. Was inolved I get it if not who cares, inlike trump's kids he has no place in government.

yucky2• 4 years ago

Do you guys ever delete your text? I can't remember ever doing so. It's annoying, why bother? It doesn't get in the way or bother you.

Many millions of people communicate with apps which delete texts as one of its key features (i.e. Snapchat, Signal etc.). So yes.

badrabbit5• 4 years ago

Only snapchat does it automatically. You have to do it intentionally otherwise and in this case explain your intent.

t-3• 4 years ago

I delete everything I don't need to save. I hate having old things I don't need cluttering my view.

bell-cot2• 4 years ago

WTF? Has The Atlantic ever talked to someone who's worked for a serious personal protection service? Of course the Secret Service made sure to wipe all the interesting data.

Personal protection is NOT about monitoring or policing the behavior of your protectee, NOT about inserting yourself into his personal business, job, or politics, and NOT about keeping records of his actions. If your protectee feels a need to ditch his protection detail because they might disapprove of, or blabber about, his behavior - then your protection service has failed.

If you task the Secret Service with monitoring Presidential behavior - don't be surprised when the monitoring logs are full of "President ordered us out of the room", "President wrote something on paper and showed it to Mr. X" etc. Or when the President twists arms, to replace professional Agents on his detail with tight-lipped political loyalists.

And if you want the Secret Service to act as a Praetorian Guard, getting involved in decisions about who gets to be President...start reading about how well that setup worked back in the Roman Empire. And again don't be surprised if Presidents start packing the Secret Service with hand-picked loyalists.

(Disclaimer: I have friends and/or relatives who where on Secret Service protection details back in the 90's and 00's. They have said nothing whatever concerning events of the past few years. All opinions are my own. Etc.)

awinder• 4 years ago

The author was a senior council in the Clinton investigation which involved issues of SS protective immunity & records release. So yeah he may be someone with personal expertise.

There’s nothing here related to policing presidential behavior or decisions about who gets to be president. There’s executive & congressional branch oversight over the secret service. They received a lawful order to preserve data and then blasted it away. There’s a ton of moral hazard in that kind of brazen rule-breaking and you’ll likely see it reflected in the coming months/years.

bell-cot2• 4 years ago

More relevant, from the author's 1-paragraph Atlantic bio:

From 2005 to 2009 he was the deputy assistant secretary for policy of the Department of Homeland Security, overseeing the U.S. Secret Service.

Yet he writes the article as if he had zero insight into the Secret Service. Zero knowledge of their org chart, zero knowledge of their data retention policies, zero... The only card he shows is a very idealistic letter-of-the-law notion of how it should operate.

I could theorize about why that is... Plausible theories do not seem flattering to Mr. Rosenzweig, nor The Atlantic, nor readers of The Atlantic.

There’s nothing here related to policing presidential behavior or decisions about...

No, nothing "policing" at all, about turning over detailed records on the rather clear commission of Sedition by a sitting Republican President, to a Democrat-controlled investigation. No chance that such records might help determine who wins the 2024 Presidential election. And no chance at all that a future Republican President and/or Congress would ever do anything to punish career employees of the Secret Service, if such records were turned over.

schainks• 4 years ago

USSS will definitely ask the House Appropriations committee for more budget to prevent this from happening again.

The Secret Service Texting Scandal Makes No Sense

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