Looks like the Secret Service is now trying to scapegoat its own agents
Secret Service officials are now telling NBC News that all personnel were instructed to back up their own text messages before turning in their phones. In other words, the top brass is pointing the finger at the individual agents who may have sent Trump-related text messages on or around January 6th, accusing them of having lost the evidence by failing to back it up.
This still doesn’t sound right. The January 6th Committee and the Homeland Security Inspector General formally requested these text messages before they were deleted. Even if the agents in question did fail to back up their phones, the agency itself could and should have stepped in and secured these messages before any scheduled mass-wiping of phones.
This still feels like a coverup, and but now it feels like the Secret Service is trying to scapegoat specific individuals in order to protect the agency overall. If these agents feel they’re being scapegoated, they’ll likely respond in kind, by pointing the finger back at agency officials.
Keep in mind that this kind of coverup requires everyone who participated in it (or had knowledge of it) to keep quiet, and to trust each other to keep quiet. When people involved in a coverup start publicly trying to scapegoat each other, that trust is broken, and it’s often what prompts some of those individuals to decide that they’re better off simply cooperating and flipping on the others – before the others can flip.
