The Secret Service deleted text messages from January 5 and January 6, 2021, according to a letter from the agency’s inspector general that was sent to the House select committee investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol building.
The text was deleted quickly after oversight officials from Department of Homeland Security, which is the parent agency of Secret Service, removed it. requested to review the agency’s electronic communications. The Secret Service claims that the deletions were accidental due to a device-replacement program. However, there are suspicions about the timing of the text deletions.
“I’m not buying it,” wrote former federal prosecutor Joyce Alene.
The deleted texts were first reported on by The Intercept, which noted that the texts could have provided critical insight into the agency’s actions that day — including why, for instance, agents wanted to remove then-Vice President Mike Pence from the Capitol.
Pence’s departure from the building would have prevented him from taking part in the Electoral College certification process, potentially prolonging the process for days, depending on how far he would have been transported away. It’s likely that Pence was aware of this fact.
“I’m not getting in the car. If I get in that vehicle, you guys are taking off,” he reportedly said to Secret Service agents who insisted that he should leave.
“People need to understand that if Pence had listened to the Secret Service and fled the Capitol, this could have turned out a whole lot worse,” an anonymous congressional official told The Intercept. “It could’ve been a successful coup, not just an attempted one.”
Although the content of the deleted messages is unknown, it’s possible that the texts included information on this event.
The missing messages could also reveal information about Cassidy Hutchinson’s claims that she was an ex-White House aide to President Donald Trump. She claimed in public testimony before the January 6 committee that this month that she had received no messages. Trump was enraged when Secret Service agents told him that they wouldn’t take him to the CapitolHis loyalists attacked the building. Hutchinson, citing conversations she had with Trump’s deputy chief of staff Tony Ornato (himself a Secret Service agent), said in her deposition that the former president had tried to grab the steering wheel away from the driver of his vehicle, and “lunged” at an agent when he refused to take him to the Capitol where the chaos was unfolding.
Trump has denied Hutchinson’s accountHe tried to discredit her via his social media platform Truth Social by sharing details of what happened. A Washington D.C. police officer shared his memories of the events with the January 6, committee. A source who knows what he said said that he was not a police officer. the officer has confirmed many of Hutchinson’s claims.
The messages were deleted by members of both the Houses of Congress, causing anger among them. Sen. Gary Peters (D. Michigan), who chairs Senate Homeland Security Committee. blasted the agency and the department that oversees it for failing to keep records of the texts.
“We need to get to the bottom of whether the Secret Service destroyed federal records or the Department of Homeland Security obstructed oversight,” Peters said in a statement. “The DHS Inspector General needs these records to do its independent oversight and the public deserves to have a full picture of what occurred on January 6th.”
