Trump 'chose not to act' as mob attacked, Jan. 6 committee says

A revelation about deleted text messages by the Secret Service is looming large over Thursday’s hearing.

The House committee subpoenaed the agency earlier this month for text messages sent on Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, 2021. But the agency said most of those records were lost in a planned data migration.

So far, the Secret Service has provided a single text exchange to the Department of Homeland Security inspector general investigating the agency's record-keeping, according to an agency letter to the House Jan. 6 committee obtained by ABC News on Wednesday.

The committee is suggesting the Secret Service broke federal records keeping laws. Hours before the hearing, news broke that the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general has turned the inquiry into a criminal investigation.

The House select committee plans to focus Thursday night's hearing on what it says was Trump's dereliction of duty to act to stop the insurrection.

"It's obvious the president was derelict in his duty, but for all the details you have to watch," Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., who is co-leading the hearing, told ABC Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., on Thursday morning teased snippets of depositions previewing testimony from Kayleigh McEnany, former press secretary; Ret. Lt. Gen. Keith Kellog, then-national security adviser to Vice President Mike Pence; Molly Michael, Trump's former executive assistant; and Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel at the time.

In the montage, the former White House officials recall how Trump was in the private dining room off the Oval Office watching television as the violence unfolded.

"To the best of my recollection, he was always in the dining room" McEnany said in her deposition.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., and Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., will lead tonight's hearing.

Luria previously told "GMA 3" she and Kinzinger will analyze step-by-step the 187 minutes between Trump's speech at the Ellipse and his statement later that afternoon to the nation telling rioters to go home. The committee, she said, will provide the most detailed timeline yet of Trump's response to the insurrection.

"He didn't take the leadership role as the President of the United States, as the commander in chief," Luria said.