Officials knew mayor’s phone setting caused texts to vanish

SEATTLE (AP) — Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan’s office said this spring that 10 months of her missing text messages could be attributed to an unknown technology issue. However, The Seattle Times reports that internal emails appear to show officials had already known for months why the texts were gone and when they disappeared. City Attorney Pete Holmes says the initial explanation from Durkan’s office was misleading. An email exchange between her office and the city attorney’s office in January shows Durkan’s texts were set to automatically delete on a phone she started using in July 2020, shortly after racial justice protests rocked the city. The mayor’s office has declined to answer specific questions about the emails.