A government watchdog said in a letter released yesterday that the US Secret Service, the security agency protecting the president, deleted text messages sent from its agents during the Capitol Hill riots on Jan.
Joseph Cuffari, Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security, told Congress in a letter Wednesday that his office was having difficulty obtaining Secret Service records for January 5 and 6, 2021.
The messages could be crucial to House and Justice Department investigations into whether Donald Trump and his close associates encouraged the deadly uprising of the former president’s supporters on Capitol Hill.
The attack was intended to prevent Democratic rival Joe Biden from being confirmed as the winner of the November 2020 election.
Secret Service agents were with Trump that day, as were Vice President Mike Pence, who was hiding on Capitol Hill after pro-Trump protesters called for him to be hanged.
On June 29, a former White House official told the January 6 investigation that Trump was trying to compel the Secret Service to take him to Capitol Hill to join his supporters.
“The Department has informed us that several US Secret Service (USSS) text messages dated January 5-6, 2021 have been deleted as part of a device replacement program,” said Cuffari in a letter published by The Intercept and subsequently The Intercept. by Politico.
“The USSS deleted these text messages after the OIG (Office of the Inspector General) requested electronic communications records,” it said on Jan. 6 for review.
In addition, he added that the department has been slow to provide other recordings to OIG.
Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi denied the allegation, saying the officers’ phones were wiped as part of a planned replacement program that began before OIG requested information six weeks after the riot.
“The Secret Service has reported data loss from certain phones, but has confirmed to OIG that none of the texts they searched were lost during the migration,” he said.
source: Noticias
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