{"id":10441,"date":"2017-06-13T17:58:06","date_gmt":"2017-06-13T17:58:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/uncategorized\/2017\/06\/13\/senators-ask-igs-to-ensure-feds-aren-t-deleting-encrypted-messages\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T04:30:32","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T04:30:32","slug":"senators-ask-igs-to-ensure-feds-aren-t-deleting-encrypted-messages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/management\/2017\/06\/13\/senators-ask-igs-to-ensure-feds-aren-t-deleting-encrypted-messages\/","title":{"rendered":"Senators ask IGs to ensure feds aren’t deleting encrypted messages"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sens. Tom Carper, D-Del., and Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., want agency inspectors general to review how federal agencies are preserving their electronic records. The pair sent a letter to 24 OIGs of CFO-level agencies, asking them to investigate agency compliance with the Presidential Records Act and the Federal Records Act, following a February report from the British paper The Independent<\/a> that said Trump aides were using an app called Confide that automatically deletes messages once opened to leak information to the media.Related:<\/b> Read the letter<\/a><\/i> The senators claim that the report shows continued efforts by the Trump administration to delay or ignore congressional requests for information from minority members. Carper and McCaskill said that upon seeing The Independent\u2019s report, they wrote to the National Archives and Records Administration and Archivist of the U.S. David Ferriero on March 7 seeking what guidance the office had provided to the Trump administration regarding preserving electronic messages. A week later, on March 15, Ferriero sent a memo to agency officials, instructing them that “agencies are responsible for properly managing electronic messages that are federal records whether they are SMS texts, encrypted communications, direct messages on social media platforms, email or created on any other type of electronic messaging system or account.”<\/a> But Carper and McCaskill claim the administration\u2019s use of the app also highlights a history of lengthy response times \u2014 sometimes indefinite \u2014 to requests made by minority members of Congress. The pair said that Senate Democrats released “a list of more than 100 oversight request letters that Trump Administration officials had not answered” on March 15 to various agencies. “While it might be reasonable to attribute some delay in responding to Congressional requests to the presidential transition process, recent reports suggest that the Trump administration\u2019s lack of transparency and responsiveness may be by design,” the letter said. The senators cited a Jan. 20 memo from the Trump administration to HHS officials instructing them not communicate with members of Congress between Jan. 20 and Feb. 3 about any pending regulation or policy unless approved by agency leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

The letter also noted repeated requests from Carper to the General Services Administration for information on the Trump Organization\u2019s lease of the Old Post Office building as examples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The senators have asked the inspectors general to answer the following questions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n