The Jan. 6 committee has received “thousands” of records from the Secret Service, marking the latest effort from lawmakers to uncover communications sent within the agency in the days leading up to the Capitol riot.
The transfer of documents comes in response to a subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee in July that sought information about text messages that were sent on Jan. 5 and 6 but were deleted by the agency. The records handed over on Wednesday consist “primarily” of text messages sent on those dates, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) said, but the panel also received “a combination of … thousands of exhibits.”
JAN. 6 COMMITTEE SUBPOENAS SECRET SERVICE FOR ‘ERASED’ TEXT MESSAGES
“The tranches we’ve received have been significant,” the committee chairman told reporters on Wednesday. “It’s a work in progress.”
Thompson declined to comment further because the committee is still reviewing the documents that were handed over.
Inspector General Joseph Cuffari initially issued a request in June 2021 for text messages sent between Secret Service members between Dec. 7, 2020, and Jan. 8, 2021. That request came after lawmakers issued a subpoena in March 2021, seeking similar messages — but only for those “received, prepared, or sent” between Jan. 5-7, 2021.
Officials later concluded the agency no longer possessed the text messages, which lawmakers hoped would shed light on the days leading up to the Jan. 6 attack. The Secret Service maintained the agency did not maliciously delete the communications, noting some were lost due to a “device-replacement program” that began about a month before the inspector general’s request.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Anthony Guglielmi, chief of communications for the Secret Service, confirmed the agency would “continue to fully cooperate” with the committee but said that “no additional text messages were recovered,” according to Axios. Instead, the agency turned over “a significant level of detail from emails, radio transmissions, Microsoft Teams chat messages, and exhibits that address aspects of planning, operations, and communications surrounding January 6th.”
Secret Service text messages could shed light on what transpired behind the scenes on or before the day of the Capitol riot. The agency has come under special interest after ex-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.
