Trusted Build Process Deleted 28,989 Files – Including 695 Legally Mandated Logs (CO)

The Colorado Secretary of State’s trusted build process – a state-mandated Dominion upgrade conducted with active state participation and approval – deleted 28,989 files from the Mesa County EMS server, including at least 695 log and event-log files required by federal and state law to be retained for 22 months. Deleted categories included IIS web-server logs, SQL Server installation and error logs, Windows Defender logs, and multiple Windows event-log archives. These logs are the primary means by which examiners could reconstruct whether unauthorized access, configuration changes, or exploitation of documented vulnerabilities had occurred. The “trusted build” – a mechanism presented to the public as an integrity-preserving certification update – functioned operationally as a mass evidence-destruction tool.