国土安全部的监察长已经将调查移交给特勤局已删除的短信三名熟悉情况的消息人士周四向美国广播公司证实，这是一起刑事调查。
监察长周三晚上致信特勤局，告知该机构在刑事调查结束前停止任何内部调查。
监察长办公室告诉美国广播公司新闻，它对正在进行的调查不予置评。
“按照司法部长的指导方针，DHS·OIG既不确认也不否认关于我们调查的信息，”OIG的一位发言人说。
调查的消息是在众议院1月6日委员会准备举行黄金时段听证会预计被删除的文本将在会上得到解决，人们质疑这些文本可能会揭示时任总统唐纳德·特朗普的行动。
目前还不清楚这一刑事调查是否会导致移交给司法部，但监察长希望特勤局停止其内部审查。
“特勤局收到了国土安全部监察长的信，”特勤局发言人在一份声明中告诉ABC新闻。“我们已经将监察长的要求告知了1月6日的特别委员会，并将进行彻底的法律审查，以确保我们完全配合所有的监督工作，并且这些工作不会相互冲突。”
据知情人士透露，特勤局表示，它一直在配合众议院1月6日委员会的传票和国家档案和记录管理局的调查。
探测器是第一个据报告的NBC新闻。
美国广播公司新闻网(ABC News)周三获得的一封致众议院1月6日委员会的机构信函显示，该机构向调查该机构记录保存情况的国土安全部监察长(Department of Homeland Security inspector general)提供了一份单一的文本交流，1月6日委员会表示，他们违反了联邦记录保存法。
“在这些记录明显丢失之前，四个众议院委员会已经从国土安全部寻求这些关键记录，”该委员会在声明中说。此外，在此次清除之前保存内容的程序似乎违反了联邦记录保留要求，并可能违反了联邦记录法案
据一位熟悉特勤局迁移过程的消息人士透露，去年12月，该机构向员工发出了关于如何将政府记录的数字文件上传到他们本地设备上的通信。
如果文件是特定于定义的，员工被指示在迁移之前上传它们，该消息人士说，如果员工不这样做，当手机被工厂重置以实施新的无线系统时，内容可能会丢失。个人不会手动进入设备并删除内容。该消息人士称，这是由该机构远程完成的。
该消息人士称，1月初还发出了第二份通知，在当月晚些时候开始迁移之前通知员工。
DHS inspector general opens criminal probe into deleted Secret Service texts
The Department of Homeland Security's inspector general has turned the inquiry into the Secret Servicedeleted text messagesinto a criminal investigation, three sources familiar with the situation confirmed to ABC News Thursday.
The inspector general sent a letter to the Secret Service Wednesday night telling the agency to halt any internal investigations until the criminal probe has been wrapped up.
The inspector general's office told ABC News it doesn't comment on ongoing probes.
"Consistent with Attorney General guidelines, DHS OIG neither confirms nor denies information about our investigations," an OIG spokesperson said.
News of the probe came hours before the House Jan. 6 committee was set tohold a prime-time hearingat which it was expected the deleted texts would be addressed, amid questions about they could shed light on the actions of then-President Donald Trump.
It is unclear whether this criminal investigation would result in a referral to the Justice department but the inspector general wants the Secret Service to halt its internal review.
"The Secret Service is in receipt of the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General's letter," a Secret Service spokesperson told ABC News in a statement. "We have informed the January 6th Select Committee of the Inspector General's request and will conduct a thorough legal review to ensure we are fully cooperative with all oversight efforts and that they do not conflict with each other."
The Secret Service has said it has been cooperating with a House Jan. 6 committee subpoena and a National Archives and Records Administration inquiry, according to a source familiar with the situation.
The probe was firstreportedby NBC News.
The agency provided a single text exchange to the Department of Homeland Security inspector general investigating the agency's record-keeping, according to an agency letter to the House Jan. 6 committee obtained by ABC News on Wednesday, and the Jan. 6 committee suggested they broke federal records keeping laws.
"Four House committees had already sought these critical records from the Department of Homeland Security before the records were apparently lost," the committee said in statement. "Additionally, the procedure for preserving content prior to this purge appears to have been contrary to federal records retention requirements and may represent a possible violation of the Federal Records Act."
In December, the agency sent out communications to employees on how to upload digital files on their local devices if they are government records, according to a source familiar with the Secret Service migration process.
If the files were specific to the definition, employees were instructed to upload them prior to the migration, and the source said employees that did not do that, the content was likely lost when the phones were factory reset to implement the new wireless system. Individuals did not manually go on to the devices and delete content. That was done remotely by the agency, the source said.
There was also a second notification in early January advising employees prior to the start of the migration which occurred later in the month, the source said.
