U.S. Secret Service deleted texts sought in Jan. 6 probe, watchdog says
By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Secret Service deleted textual content messages from Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, 2021 after they had been requested by oversight officers investigating the company’s response to the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol, the company watchdog has claimed.
The Secret Service disputed that accusation on Thursday, saying some telephone information was misplaced throughout a routine system migration, however that all the requested texts had been saved.
In a letter to the Home of Representatives and Senate Homeland Safety Committees investigating the occasions of Jan. 6, the Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) inspector common’s workplace (OIG) mentioned “many” messages had been erased by the Secret Service with a device-replacement program after the watchdog requested for the data.
It was not clear from the letter what messages the inspector common’s workplace believed had been deleted or what proof they could include.
After the letter was printed on Thursday, Bennie Thompson, who chairs each the congressional panel probing the Capitol assault and the Home Homeland Safety Committee, instructed the Axios information web site the alleged deletion was “regarding.”
“If there is a approach we will reconstruct the texts or what have you ever, we’ll,” Thompson mentioned.
The DHS didn’t reply to a request for remark late on Thursday.
In a prolonged assertion issued in response to the accusations, a Secret Service spokesman mentioned the company had “absolutely” cooperated with the inspector common’s workplace.
“DHS OIG requested digital communications for the primary time on Feb. 26, 2021, after the migration was properly beneath approach,” spokesman Anthony Guglielmi mentioned. “The Secret Service notified DHS OIG of the lack of sure telephones’ information, however confirmed to OIG that not one of the texts it was searching for had been misplaced within the migration.”
Guglielmi mentioned that regardless of the assertions of the inspector common’s workplace, its staff had been granted “applicable and well timed entry” to the supplies.
The Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol adopted weeks of false claims by Trump that he gained the 2020 election. On Tuesday, lawmakers of the Home panel probing the assault accused Trump of inciting the violence in a last-ditch bid to stay in energy after shedding the election.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington, Enhancing by Rosalba O’Brien and Edwina Gibbs)
