Former SEC Chair Gary Gensler's deleted texts under scrutiny from House Republicans

Former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler is facing lawmakers' scrutiny over texts that were deleted during his tenure.

In a letter sent to the current SEC Chair Paul Atkins, Republican Reps. French Hill, Dan Meuser, Bryan Steil, and Ann Wagner said they were concerned about the agency's loss of almost a year of Gensler's texts. Gensler was chair of the SEC from 2021 through 2024.

Earlier this month, the Office of Inspector General [OIG], an independent office within the SEC, said the agency's tech office "implemented a poorly understood and automated policy that caused an enterprise wipe of Gensler’s government-issued mobile device." Therefore, text messages between Oct. 2022 and Sept. 2023 were lost, the office said.

During that chunk of time, the SEC brought multiple cases against crypto firms, including Coinbase and Binance. Coinbase recently asked a federal court to order an "expedited proper search" of Gensler's deleted texts.

Lawmakers also brought up Gensler's previous use of a personal email for official business while he was chair of the SEC's sister agency, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

"Collectively, these incidents, along with the OIG’s findings, raise serious concerns about former Chair Gensler’s and OIT’s [Office of Information Technology] compliance with federal recordkeeping laws, transparency obligations, and the integrity of agency oversight," they said.