(PresidentialWire.com)- In what has been referred to as a “pre-planned device-replacement program,” text messages transmitted between agents of the United States Secret Service on January 5 and January 6, 2021, were wiped.
According to a revelation by Ken Klippenstein of The Intercept, messages from the CIA were requested by the House select committee investigating the attack on the Capitol on January 6. It was reported to the legislators that the texts had been removed.
Klippenstein stated that the Secret Service did this.
The letter was initially distributed to the House of Representatives and the Senate Committees on Homeland Security by the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security.
The texts are gone for good amid the ongoing investigation into the ransacking of the Capitol building.
The letter, initially written by the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General and sent to the House and Senate Homeland Security Committees, states that the messages were removed from the system as part of a device-replacement program after the watchdog requested records related to the agency’s electronic communications.
Bennie Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi and the committee leader, acknowledged that he had received the letter.
The inspector general said before the panel that the Secret Service gave two explanations for the missing texts: one was related to software updates, and the other was related to gadget replacements.
Despite choosing to have his office assess the agency’s reaction to the Capitol attack rather than doing after-action reports, the inspector general said that the secret service obstructed the study by delaying the submission of necessary documents.
The inspector general first voiced his concerns, then spoke about whether it would be possible to recreate the texts. According to some present at the meeting, however, the select committee was so frightened by the problems that it moved several hours later to subpoena the Secret Service.
The flurry of rapid-fire developments on Capitol Hill demonstrated how the removal of the Secret Service texts, which were first made public in a letter to Congress from the inspector general, Joseph Cuffari, has emerged as a top concern for the congressional investigation into the events of January 6, has taken precedence.
