(Washington) The Ombudsman for the United States Department of Homeland Security informed members of the House of Representatives Committee on the January 6, 2021, Capitol Building Investigations Committee on Friday of his discovery of deleted text messages. by the Secret Service, according to two knowledgeable sources.
Posted yesterday at 5:44 p.m.
While the elected officials remained silent about what they heard during this closed-door hearing with Inspector General Joseph Cuffari, it seems that this meeting took place two days after his office sent a letter to the House and Senate homeland security committee leaders. The missive said Secret Service agents deleted text messages sent between Jan. 5 and Jan. 6 “as part of a device replacement program.”
Also according to the missive, the deletion of the messages would have been carried out after the filing of a request by the ombudsman to obtain documents from these agents as part of his own investigation into the attempted insurrection of January 6. 2021.
For the committee, these revelations raise the startling possibility of the loss of evidence that may shed more light on former President Donald Trump’s role in the attempted insurgency.
The Democratic chair of the committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson, told The Associated Press on Friday that he and his colleagues would look further into this aspect to confirm whether any documents were destroyed.
The holding of this private hearing was confirmed by two people well aware of the case and who agreed to speak to AP on condition of anonymity.
As far as the Secret Service is concerned, we insist on the fact that the procedures were respected. Agency spokesman Anthony Guglielmi argued that “the insinuation of text messages maliciously deleted by the Secret Service is false. In fact, the Secret Service has been completely cooperative with the Inspector General.”
He reported that the Secret Service began a process of resetting its mobile devices in January 2021 as part of a migration to a new system that was expected to take three months and was already planned. “During the process, some data was lost,” he conceded.
The Inspector General’s request would have been received on February 26, well after the migration process got under way, added Mr. Guglielmi.
The Secret Service claims to have provided the Inspector General with a substantial number of emails and text messages including conversations and details related to the events of January 6. He adds that text messages sent by the Capitol Police Department requesting his assistance during the chaos were preserved and turned over to the ombudsman.
The Investigating Committee is showing renewed interest in the Secret Service’s involvement since the damning testimony of a former White House aide, Cassidy Hutchinson, who recounted what she heard about the actions of the ex-President Trump on the day of the attempted insurrection.
Cassidy Hutchinson said she was tipped off about a confrontation between Mr Trump and his protection officers when he aggressively demanded they be taken to the Capitol, where his supporters were about to break in. She also said she heard the former president order security officials to remove metal detectors at the entrance to his rally even though some of those present were armed.
Certain elements of this testimony were, however, quickly denied by the officers concerned.
While other elements continue to surface, the committee of inquiry announced that its next hearing will take place next Thursday at 8 p.m. We should then take a closer look at the three hours during which the ex-president failed to intervene to discourage his supporters from attacking the Capitol.