WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security’s internal watchdog has taken months to alert Congress to missing Secret Service text messages surrounding the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, even after lawyers approved a draft report, the information released. omitted an important report and eventually only released a milder version, according to newly released documents.
The Draft Warningobtained by the Project on Government Oversight, a government watchdog group, is the latest evidence that raises questions about how the Inspector General’s Office is handling the missing texts, and is sure to infuriate House Democrats, some of whom have accused the Inspector General of a cover-up as they investigate the attack.
The approved report is damning. Congress had to be warned that the Secret Service had removed texts related to the investigation into the attack, delayed responding to investigators, and redacted documents unnecessarily.
But although lawyers for the Inspector General’s office agreed to the draft notice on April 1, the agency, appointed to watch over the Secret Service, waited until July 13 to sound the alarm.
Joseph V. Cuffari, the agency’s inspector general, also did not include the warning in a June semi-annual report, though that report must disclose when an agency “has objected to or objected to surveillance activities” or “disallowed access.” to information has been limited or significantly delayed”. according to a Project on Government Oversight report on the draft warning.
Key Revelations from the January 6 Hearings
Key Revelations from the January 6 Hearings
File a case against Trump. The House committee investigating the January 6 attack gives a comprehensive account of President Donald J. Trump’s efforts to undo the 2020 election. Here are the key issues that have emerged from eight public hearings so far:
Key Revelations from the January 6 Hearings
Pressure pennies. Mr. Trump continued to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to cooperate with a plan to reverse his loss even after being told it was illegal, according to testimony given by the panel at the third hearing. The commission showed how Mr. Trump’s actions led his supporters to storm the Capitol and put Mr. Pence on the run for his life.
The group said the language never made it into the agency’s semi-annual review after it was sent to an office headed by the Chief of Staff to the Inspector General, Kristen Fredricks.
The Inspector General’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The report also includes new details about how the Secret Service resisted the investigation into its actions surrounding the January 6 attack.
The Secret Service had blamed a phone system update for the loss of key data dated January 5 and 6, 2021. But the “Service Service has not explained why it failed to save the texts prior to the migration,” the draft notice said.
The Secret Service has since said that the project was underway before it received notice from the Inspector General to keep its records, and that it was not “maliciously” deleting text messages.
On Wednesday, House Homeland Security Committee Democrats asked the Secret Service chief and the Secretary of Homeland Security for details about the systems migration.
It’s unclear what the missing text messages say or how many are missing. In general, the agency doesn’t want its agents to use the texting feature on their phones. But the agency’s resistance to cooperating with the Inspector General’s investigation has raised questions about what it might be hiding.
Top Democrats have been pushing for answers from the Inspector General’s office for weeks, including demanding that Ms. Fredricks and another staff member testify before Congress on the matter.
Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, New York Democrat and Oversight Committee Chair, and Representative Bennie Thompson, Mississippi Democrat and Homeland Security Committee Chair, have asked Mr. Cuffari to refrain from investigating the missing texts .
Mr. Cuffari eventually informed Congress that messages dated January 5 and 6 had been deleted, suggesting the removal took place as part of a device replacement program. He has said that among those whose messages were missing were agents who were part of former President Donald J. Trump’s security detail.
The Inspector General also instructed the Secret Service to halt its internal search for deleted texts sent by agents around the time of Jan. 6 so that it “would not interfere with an ongoing criminal investigation.”
The agency has handed over agents’ personal cell phone numbers as part of that investigation, according to a person familiar with the case. This sparked outrage from the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, which said the personal numbers should not have been released without the agents’ consent.
But Ms. Maloney and Mr. Thompson, who also head the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack, said she trusts Mr. Cuffari . have lostwhose office they said “may have taken steps to cover up the extent of missing records, raising concerns about your ability to perform your duties as an inspector general independently and effectively.”
the legislators quoted coverage from CNN that the Inspector General learned in May 2021 that the Secret Service was missing critical text messages.
Lawmakers also said the committees had learned that Mr. Cuffari’s office had been notified in February that text messages from Chad Wolf and Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, the two top political officials of the Department of Homeland Security, had been sent to January 2021, could not be picked up. They added that the Inspector General also knew that Mr. Cuccinelli was using his personal phone and was also unable to collect messages from that device.