The heads of two powerful House committees are imploring the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security to step aside from the inquiry into missing Secret Service text messages.
Citing how DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari did not inform their committees sooner about the disappearing text messages around the time of the Capitol riot, Jan. 6 committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and Oversight Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) demanded a new inquiry head.
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“We are writing to express our grave concerns with Inspector General Cuffari’s failure to promptly notify Congress of crucial information while conducting an investigation of the Secret Service’s preparation for and response to the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol,” Maloney and Thompson wrote in a letter to Cuffari and Allison Lerner, chairwoman of Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency.
Earlier this month, Cuffari informed the Jan. 6 committee that his office had sought text messages from the Secret Service during the time that surrounded the Capitol riot but was informed that many of those text messages no longer existed. He later wrote a letter to the Oversight Committee, explaining that the messages had been lost during a “device replacement program.”
The Jan. 6 committee had requested that the DHS, the parent agency of the Secret Service, fetch the text messages back in January but has evidence the DHS inspector general’s office was aware of the missing messages in December 2021 and failed to disclose that to it in a timely manner, according to Thompson and Maloney.
“These omissions left Congress in the dark about key developments in this investigation and may have cost investigators precious time to capture relevant evidence,” the committee leaders continued. “Inspector General Cuffari’s actions in this matter, which follow other troubling reports about his conduct as Inspector General, cast serious doubt on his independence and his ability to effectively conduct such an important investigation.”
They also alluded to reports that his office had been stonewalling investigators and dredged up accusations that he sought to “censor findings of domestic abuse and sexual harassment by DHS employees.” They also claimed he refused to investigate reports of Secret Service agents using excessive force during the Trump administration.
The Washington Examiner reached out to the DHS, the DHS inspector general’s office, and the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency for comment.
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Congress isn’t alone in demanding answers as to how the text messages went missing. The National Archives has called on the Secret Service to investigate its records-keeping process. Reports indicate that the Secret Service was only able to produce one text exchange to the inspector general and Jan. 6 committee.
The missing Secret Service text messages could have shed light on what transpired behind the scenes in the days surrounding the Capitol riot. For example, Jan. 6 committee witness and former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson delivered public testimony about then-President Donald Trump attempting to commandeer the wheel of a Secret Service SUV. Trump has disputed the story.
