Really good thread. This has been gnawing at me, and I hope the J6 attempts to connect these dots. Between Grassley’s slip about not expecting Pence to be there for the certification of the votes, Pence’s refusal to get in the car, Trump’s failure to act for 3 hours, and now this loss of texts, I think the plot is fairly understood at this point. Trump was aware that Pence was not going along with the plan, so the real plan was for the riot to force Pence to evacuate the Capitol so Grassley could certify the false electors. That’s why Trump held out as long as he did. I’m sure his lizard brain enjoyed the show, but he was really holding out for Pence to leave. My guess is a small part of the SS was in on it, and smart enough not to text in the clear about it, but the missing texts would probably expose a lot of confusion about broken protocol or finger pointing as the smart ones started putting shit together.
The SS is as the thread points out, extremely aware of the protocols around cyber data even before they started getting records requests. There would be no confusion about those requests and what they required, so this data loss after the fact is is a flagrant middle finger to congress and the law. If heads don’t roll from this, we really are beyond repair.