Overview
- On Thursday July 2, 2026 the investigating judge recorded that U.S. authorities told the court WhatsApp does not retain message content but preserved a commission rogatoria to seek metadata about who communicated and when.
- Spanish investigators and a Guardia Civil report say WhatsApp deletes delivered messages from its servers and removes undelivered messages after 30 days, which prevents recovery of deleted chat content from the company.
- The probe was further constrained because José Manuel Cuenca reset the phone he used on October 29, 2024 before returning it in January 2026, erasing chats that might have been on the device.
- The judge argued that metadata showing interlocutors and timestamps still has probative value because several witnesses have denied, said they do not remember, or declined to provide the content of alleged messages.
- The judicial order can be challenged by a recurso de reforma within three days or an appeal within five days and runs alongside a separate European order seeking Telegram records in Brussels, a step that could affect how the court establishes official accountability for the DANA response.