U.S. Secret Service members erased Jan. 5-6 texts after messages were requested, says watchdog
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Members of the U.S. Secret Service erased text messages from Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, 2021, shortly after the Department of Homeland Security inspector general requested them as part of an investigation into the agency’s response to the assault on the U.S. Capitol, according to a letter written by the inspector general to congressional leaders and obtained by CBS News.
In a letter sent to the House and Senate Homeland Security Committees, DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari wrote that although his office had been notified that texts were erased as part of a device replacement program, the wiping of the devices occurred after a request for electronic communications.
“First, the Department notified us that many U.S. Secret Service text messages from January 5 and 6, 2021, were erased as part of a device-replacement program. The USSS erased those text messages after OIG requested records of electronic communications from the USSS, as part of our evaluation of events at the Capitol on January 6,” Cuffari wrote in the letter.
“Second, DHS personnel have repeatedly told OIG inspectors that they were not permitted to provide records directly to OIG and that such records had to first undergo review by DHS attorneys,” the letter continued. “This review led to weeks-long delays in OIG obtaining records and created confusion over whether all records had been produced.”
The U.S. Secret Service has not yet responded to the OIG’s letter. But spokesperson for the U.S. Secret Service Anthony Guglielmi said in a tweet, Thursday afternoon, the agency “take[s] strong issue” with the letter from the DHS watchdog, calling it “categorically false.”
The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol declined to comment. The DHS inspector general’s office did not immediately respond to a request by CBS News.
Ranking Member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio said he is “deeply concerned” by the letter, in a statement to CBS News. “It is essential that the Department be transparent with its inspector general, Congress, and the American public,” Portman added.
Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, who chairs both the House Homeland Security and Jan. 6 committees, said the former “will be briefed about this extraordinarily troubling destruction of records and respond accordingly,” in a statement to CBS News.
News of the agency’s alleged efforts to wipe communications comes just one week after U.S. Secret Service Director James Murray announced his retirement from his post. The 32-year veteran of the federal government plans to depart at the end of July.
The letter does not indicate whether DHS’ top watchdog believes electronic communications were deleted intentionally in an effort to evade transparency, but adds to the uncertainty surrounding the Secret Service’s response to the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Last month, White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson described former President Trump’s desire to go to the Capitol with his supporters while Congress was in a joint session counting the electoral ballots, during a hearing of the Jan. 6 Committee.
Hutchinson testified that she had spoken with White House deputy chief of staff for operations Tony Ornato in a room with Robert Engel, the Secret Service special agent in charge on Jan. 6. According to Hutchinson, during the meeting, Ornato conveyed that the president became “irate” in his vehicle when he was told that he could not go to the Capitol. He said something to the effect of “I’m the f***ing president, take me up to the Capitol now,” Hutchinson said. The Intercept was first to report the letter from the DHS inspector general.
When informed that he had to return to the West Wing, Trump reached up to the front of the vehicle to grab at the steering wheel, prompting Engel to grab his arm, Hutchinson said she was told by Ornato.
But a source close to the Secret Service confirmed to CBS News that Engel and the driver are prepared to testify under oath that neither man was physically attacked or assaulted by Trump and that the former president never lunged for the steering wheel of the vehicle.
After Hutchinson’s testimony, Guglielmi said the agency “has been cooperating” with the committee and would “continue to do so, including by responding on the record…regarding the new allegations” that surfaced in the hearing.
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Nicole Sganga