House Republicans Investigate Lost SEC Text Messages
House Republicans have formally informed SEC Chair Paul Atkins about their investigation. They are probing the loss of text messages from former SEC Chair Gary Gensler during his tenure. The inquiry focuses on concerns over how official records were handled.
In a letter dated September 30, 2025, Republicans said they are working with the SEC’s Office of Inspector General (OIG). Their goal is to learn more about the deleted text messages from Gensler.
OIG Report Details Text Message Loss
On September 3, 2025, the SEC’s OIG released a report titled “Special Review: Avoidable Errors Led to the Loss of Former SEC Chair Gary Gensler’s Text Message.” The report revealed that on July 6, 2023, Gensler’s smartphone stopped communicating with the SEC’s mobile device management system.
Although the phone worked normally, the system marked it as “inactive” for 62 days. Despite multiple alerts, SEC’s Office of Information Technology (OIT) staff did not investigate or fix the issue.
The OIT had a policy to remotely wipe any SEC device inactive for 45 days. Gensler’s phone was wiped on September 6, 2023, after exceeding this threshold. Since no backup existed after October 18, 2022, the factory reset erased all data, including text messages.
The OIG tried to recover the messages using forensic methods but could not retrieve all data. To partially restore records, SEC staff created a list of 34 internal contacts believed to have communicated with Gensler. This list excluded other commissioners and did not involve Gensler’s staff.
Crypto Industry Criticizes SEC’s Handling
The incident has raised concerns about how agencies manage sensitive information from top officials. Critics argue the SEC enforces recordkeeping rules on outside groups but fails to protect its own leaders’ communications.
On September 11, 2025, Coinbase asked a federal court in Washington to sanction the SEC. This followed the OIG report’s release on September 3.
Tyler Winklevoss, Gemini’s co-founder, also criticized Gensler after his September 18 interview on CNBC. Gensler highlighted handling nearly 100 fraud cases and emphasized his strict crypto regulations to protect investors. Winklevoss said these rules hinder crypto industry growth and innovation.
