Inspector General Joseph Koufari — having already received an initial batch of documents, including “hundreds of thousands of leaked documents, policies, radio communications, emails, briefings and interviews” — requested in June 2021 text messages sent and received by 24 Secret The service staff between Dec. 7, 2020, and Jan. 8, 2021, according to the letter, the details of which were not previously disclosed. The letter does not identify the 24 staff members. “The Secret Service submitted the responsive records it identified, namely, a text message conversation from former US Capitol Police Chief Steven Sud to former Secret Service Uniform Division Chief Thomas Sullivan requesting assistance on January 6, 2021 and informed the agency that it had no further records responsive to the DHS OIG’s request for text messages,” Assistant Director Ronald Rowe wrote in the Jan. 6 letter to the committee. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat who sits on the select committee, said in an interview on MSNBC earlier Tuesday that the committee had received “a text message” that it had not yet seen, but that the committee “will continue to get more information as committee soon”. “They gave no indication in their letter that they’ve secured the phones in question and done any forensic work on them. That’s something we want to know,” Lofgren said. “That obviously, that doesn’t look good. Coincidences can happen, but we really need to get to the bottom of it and get a lot more information than we have right now.” In addition to the inspector general’s requests, the Secret Service was also sent a broad preservation and production request by Congress on January 16, 2021, which sought documents and materials related to January 6. A second request in March from several House committees specifically asked for communications “received, prepared or sent” between Jan. 5 and Jan. 7. The agency explained that it is up to employees to do the necessary record keeping from their phones. The letter said the agency provided staff with a “step-by-step” guide to preserving the contents of cell phones, including text messages, before the phone relocation that began Jan. 27. He went on to explain that “all Secret Service employees are responsible for properly maintaining government records that may be created through text messages.” The Secret Service wrote in the letter that it was still working to determine whether relevant information was lost in the phone relocation, but said it is “currently unaware of the text messages issued by Secret Service employees” requested by the inspector general “that was not preserved.” “The Secret Service continues to make extensive efforts to further evaluate whether any relevant text messages sent or received by 24 individuals identified by DHS OIG were lost due to the Intune migration and, if so, whether such texts are recoverable,” wrote Rowe. . “These efforts include pulling any available metadata to determine what, if any, messages were sent or received on the devices of the identified individuals.” The agency is interviewing the 24 users “to determine if the messages were stored in locations not already searched by the Secret Service.” The letter noted that the Secret Service provided 10,569 pages of documents in an initial response to a congressional subpoena last week. This production included ex post reports, schedule and policy changes in response to January 6th. The agency also sent the committee details of how it characterized then-Vice President Mike Pence’s relocation during the uprising as an “Unusual Protective Event.” In a rush to respond to last week’s requests, the letter notes, the Secret Service sent material without redactions and asked the committee to consult with the agency before releasing any of the information to the public. This story has been updated with additional details. CNN’s Mary Kay Mallonee contributed to this report.
