I’d have to look up the exact language, but I’m pretty sure retention policy relates to “official records.” So spam, or an occasional email to/from my wife, doesn’t qualify.
And then there there are the phony “phishing” tests they shoot you, and then bitch if you just delete it w/o reporting it… 
Which, in many mail programs, gets deleted after some set period.
That’s the same thing at my agency. Spam doesn’t count. They also try to prevent it from even arriving of course.
The latest reporting seems to reflect that the texts are indeed retrievable and will be produced by Tuesday. I find it interesting to see the reference to IPhones; I suspect that there isn’t as much unique encryption going on as has been speculated, other than what any business group exchanging important proprietary information might use.
(my bold)
Does “respond swiftly” equate to “provide texts”?
“Ma’am, we’re the Secret Service, not the Open Publicity Service.”
Fascinating. Thanks for the reply.
With the key word being “set”. I asked to see a .gov Deleted Items folder today and it goes back 7 years, per policy.
Yup, I just finished my annual refresher last week and came to post exactly this.
From my refresher course about what is an official record.
So spam can be safely deleted, as can an email from my wife to get milk on the way home, or a general email I got sent to the whole agency (not unique). But texts between agents would certainly be on the list for retention.
In practice I don’t bother deleting SPAM and my archive mail box has over 36,000 unread messages safely archived.
As others have said, not backing these up shows gross, firing level negligence at best.
Oh my god! Alert the authorities! Someone actually paid attention to one of these trainings?! 
Honestly, the easy way to deal with such policies is to just never delete anything, because it’s more trouble than it’s worth to pick out what’s needed from what’s not. So a text from your spouse telling you to pick up milk on the way home sticks around forever… So what?
Well, shit.
The parallels to the Hillary Clinton situation is striking, as there is reference to the fact that the deleted texts were not “official records” but just personal discussions.
Lock them up! Lock them up!
(Of course, it could very well be a nothingburger. Or the deleted texts were gossip about yet another tantrum from Mogul*)
*Trump’s code name. Weird that its googable, but that’s the word they use for him.
Sounds like they’re going with “when they’re gone, they’re gone”.
Like a lot of law enforcement, the Secret Service has been corrupted by fascism. Agents within the SS got inappropriately close to the Trumps. I assume the texts were agents collaborating with the coup, trying to get Pence out before the certification, etc.
From the article. “Trump is reported to have said, “I want these fat guys off my detail,” possibly mixing up office-based staff with agents. How are they going to protect me and my family if they can’t run down the street?” he reportedly said.
They just have to be faster than the giant orange slug - as the joke goes.
I haven’t seen any evidence that the secret service was directly involved in assisting the the coup. I suspect that the message they are trying to hide is from Meadows to Trump’s detail saying that under no circumstances should Trump be allowed to go the the Capitol. That there was going to be violence there and no matter what he says the President needs to be kept as far away as possible for his physical and legal safety.
Thus demonstrating that Trumps crew knew about the insurrection before it happened.
Pence’s potential testimony could shed light on issues surrounding the former vice president’s interaction with the Secret Service during the Capitol riot and in particular suggestions that Pence believed there was a coup attempt.
……
During the riot, Pence refused to get into an armored limousine manned by Secret Service agents and he has so far offered no explanation about that decision.
Didn’t Pence say that he wasn’t certain they wouldn’t whisk him away, when he felt he should stay?
I doubt that his answer would be as dramatic as what you might be hoping.
That said, I think that Pence is probably the one person that they could get up there to testify in person, without any formal pre-questioning, and have it mean something.
Fox is trying to sell that the whole thing is a partisan smear-fest, carefully edited to make Trump look guilty.
Let Pence come in and speak freely, and that falls apart.