The US congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol in Washington said it has subpoenaed the Secret Service as it investigates a watchdog’s allegations that the agency deleted text messages sought as evidence.
“The Select Committee is seeking the relevant text messages, as well as any follow-up reports that were issued at all USSS units related or related in any way to the events of January 6, 2021,” Committee Chairman Mississippi Rep. Benny Thompson , it said in a written statement
Inspector General Joseph Kufari met with a House panel on Friday after accusing the Secret Service of deleting “many” text messages.
“Now we have to talk to the Secret Service … Our expectation is to contact them,” Thompson told CNN.
Conflicting Accounts of Texts
Committee member Jamie Raskin told reporters on Friday that the panel is determined to retrieve text messages from Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, 2021, that are said to have been deleted.
The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Office of Inspector General sent a letter to lawmakers on Wednesday saying “many” messages were deleted by the Secret Service with a device replacement program after the watchdog requested the records.
The Secret Service disputed that charge Thursday, saying some phone data was lost during a routine device migration, but all requested texts were preserved.
“Routine file cleanup is going to require a process, so we want to see what that process is,” Thompson said Friday.
The letter did not make clear what messages the inspector general’s office says were deleted or what evidence they may have contained.
The 2021 attack on the US Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump followed weeks of false claims by the former president that he had won the 2020 election.
Dramatic testimony from a former assistant
The Jan. 6 committee took renewed interest in the Secret Service after the dramatic testimony of former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who recalled what she had heard about Trump’s actions on the day of the riot.
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 Park rally, even though some of his supporters were armed.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks afterward during a rally challenging the certification of the results of the 2020 presidential election by the U.S. Congress in Washington on January 6, 2021. (Jim Borghi/Reuters)
With evidence still emerging, the House committee on Jan. 6 scheduled its next hearing for Thursday in prime time. The hearing at 8 p.m. ET, the eighth in a series that began in early June, will take a closer look at the three-hour period when Trump failed to act as a crowd of supporters stormed the Capitol.
It will be the first prime-time hearing since June 9, the first on the commission’s findings. That earlier hearing was watched by 20 million people.
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