The Secret Service provided only a single text exchange to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol in response to a request seeking a month’s worth of records.
The single text in response to the inspector general’s subpoena from last year has been handed over to the Jan. 6 committee. The lack of messages raised concerns among officials in the Department of Homeland Security, who accused the Secret Service of failing to maintain records crucial for the committee’s investigation.
SECRET SERVICE HAS NO NEW TEXTS TO DELIVER TO JAN. 6 COMMITTEE: REPORT
“The Secret Service submitted the responsive records it identified, namely, a text message conversation from former US Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund to former Secret Service Uniformed Division Chief Thomas Sullivan requesting assistance on January 6, 2021, and advised the agency did not have any further records responsive to the DHS OIG’s request for text messages,” Ronald Rowe, assistant director for the Office of Intergovernmental and Legislative Affairs, wrote in a letter to the Jan. 6 committee.
Inspector General Joseph Cuffari issued a request in June 2021 for text messages sent between Secret Service members between Dec. 7, 2020, and Jan. 8, 2021, according to the letter. That request came after lawmakers issued a subpoena in March 2021, seeking similar messages, but only those “received, prepared or sent” between Jan. 5-7, 2021.
Officials concluded on Tuesday that the agency no longer possessed the text messages, which lawmakers hoped would shed light on actions in the days leading up to Jan. 6. The National Archives and Records Administration called on the agency to investigate whether the messages were “improperly deleted,” giving officials 30 days to detail their findings.
The Secret Service will interview the 24 members to determine whether the messages were stored in locations “not already searched,” Rowe said. Lawmakers on the Jan. 6 committee also signaled they would pursue action to obtain more information.
“In their letter, they gave no indication that they have secured the phones in question and done some forensic work with them. That’s something we want to know,” Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) told MSNBC on Tuesday. “This, obviously, this doesn’t look good. Coincidences can happen, but we really need to get to the bottom of this and get a lot more information than we have currently.”
Anthony Guglielmi, chief of communications for the Secret Service, noted the agency did not maliciously purge text message material but that some were lost due to a “device-replacement program” that began about a month before the DHS Office of Inspector General requested the records. He contended that “none of the texts” requested were among the lost data.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Secret Service text messages could shed light on what transpired behind the scenes on or before the day of the Capitol riot. Last month, former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified at a public Jan. 6 committee hearing that former President Donald Trump attempted to commandeer a Secret Service vehicle and lunged at an agent. Those claims have been disputed by Trump and reportedly by her source, Robert Engel, the special agent in charge at the time.
The Jan. 6 committee is slated to hold another public hearing Thursday focusing on Trump’s actions while the Capitol riot unfolded.
