WASHINGTON –
Secret Service agents deleted text messages sent and received around the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol even after an inspector general requested them as part of an investigation into the riot, a government watchdog has found.
The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General said in a letter obtained by The Associated Press that the messages between Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, 2021, were deleted “as part of a device replacement program.” The deletion came after the watchdog requested records of electronic communications between agents as part of its investigation into the events surrounding the Jan. 6 attack.
In addition, Homeland Security officials were told they could not provide records to the inspector general and all such records must first be reviewed by DHS attorneys.
“This review resulted in weeks-long delays in receiving records from the OIG and created confusion as to whether all records had been submitted,” said the letter, which was dated Wednesday and was sent to the leaders of the House Homeland Security Committees. the representatives and the senate.
Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said: “We take the allegations to be categorically false and I will respond in detail shortly.”
The deletion of the messages is sure to raise new questions for the House panel investigating the Jan. 6 raid, which has taken renewed interest in the Secret Service after former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson’s dramatic testimony about former President Donald Trump’s actions. day of the uprising.
Hutchinson recalled being told of a confrontation between Trump and his Secret Service team as he angrily demanded to be driven to the Capitol, where his supporters would later storm the building. She also recalled hearing Trump tell security officials to remove the magnetometers for his Ellipse rally, even though some of his supporters were armed.
However, this account was quickly disputed by these agents. Robert Engel, the agent who drove the president’s SUV, and Trump security official Tony Ornato are prepared to testify under oath that neither agent was assaulted and that Trump never threw himself at the wheel, a person familiar with the matter said , in front of AP. The person did not want to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The deletion of the text messages was first reported by The Intercept.
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Associated Press reporter Mike Balzamo contributed to this report.
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