Comment The U.S. Secret Service has decided it has no new texts to provide to Congress related to its investigation on Jan. 6 and that any other texts its agents exchanged during the 2021 Capitol attack have been purged, a senior official said. who was informed about the matter. Also, the National Archives on Tuesday sought more information about “the possible unauthorized deletion” of the agency’s text messages. The US government’s archivist has asked the Secret Service to report to the Archives within 30 days about the deletion of any records, including a description of what was purged and the circumstances of how the documentation was lost. The law enforcement agency, whose agents have been implicated in the Jan. 6 investigation because of their role shadowing and plotting President Donald Trump’s movements that day, is expected to share that conclusion with the Jan. 6 committee in response to Friday subpoena for texts and other records. The agency, which decided after reviewing its communications databases over the past four days, will provide thousands of records, but nearly all have previously been shared with a surveillance agency and congressional committees, the senior official said. None are expected to shed new light on key issues the committee is investigating, including whether Trump assaulted a Secret Service agent, an account a senior White House aide outlined to the committee Jan. 6. Many of its agents’ cell phone messages were permanently purged as of mid-January 2021, and Secret Service officials said they were the result of a reset of staff phones and a replacement it began planning months earlier. Secret Service agents, many of whom protect the president, vice president and other senior government leaders, were instructed to upload any old text messages involving government business to an internal service unit before the reset, the senior official said, but many agents seem not to have done so. The result is that potentially valuable evidence — the real-time communications and reactions of agents who interacted directly with Trump or helped coordinate his plans before and during Jan. 6 — is unlikely to ever be recovered, two people familiar with the matter said. the Secret Service communications system said. They requested anonymity to discuss sensitive topics without agency authorization. The House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 invasion of the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters issued a subpoena to the U.S. Secret Service on Friday seeking phone calls, after-action reports and other records related to that time. The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General concluded the committee’s investigation last week alleging that the Secret Service had deleted texts around Jan. 5 and 6 after his office had requested them as part of its own investigation. DHS Inspector General Joseph Koufari, a Trump appointee, briefed members of the House Select Committee on Friday after he sent a letter to lawmakers last week informing them that the text messages were missing. He also said DHS officials have been slow to turn over information he requested, which Homeland Security officials have denied. Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the agency did not delete malicious text messages and that the Secret Service had lost some data due to a previously scheduled replacement of personnel phones. The replacement began a month before the Office of Inspector General submitted its request, he said last week. Guglielmi acknowledged that some data from the phones had been lost in the transition, but stressed that “none of the texts” the OIG was seeking were missing. Committee Chairman Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.) noted that the subpoena could resolve differences in accounts between the OIG and the Secret Service, which reports to DHS. The text messages could give the committee more details about the actions of Secret Service agents and the former president during the Capitol attack. Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified during a hearing last month that Trump wanted to lead the mob from the Ellipse to the Capitol, despite knowing they were armed, and said an agent told her Trump attacked physically to the Secret Service agent. informed him that he could not go to the Capitol. He did not witness this alleged incident. Secret Service text messages have become a new focus of a congressional investigation on Jan. 6, as they could provide information about the agency’s actions on the day of the riot and possibly Trump’s. A former White House aide last month told the House Select Committee investigating the Capitol attack that Trump was notified by the Secret Service on the morning of Jan. 6 that his supporters were armed, but insisted they were allowed into the rally of the Ellipse with their weapons. Trump told multiple White House aides he wanted to lead the crowd on Capitol Hill and said his supporters were right to call for Vice President Mike Pence to be hanged, all elements that help describe his state of mind and what he wanted to do. happen in the capitol that day.
