After deleting text messages, the investigative committee into the Capitol attack has requested documents from the Secret Service. The Special Committee was informed that text messages dated January 5 and 6, 2021 had been deleted as part of a “device replacement program,” it said late Friday evening (local time).
One therefore asks the Secret Service for appropriate information. Democratic leader Bennie Thompson said they were requesting the remaining relevant text messages as well as any subsequent reports on the issue.
It was revealed on Thursday that several text messages from Secret Service security guards on the day of the Capitol attack in Washington had been deleted.
The messages were deleted after his office requested records of electronic communications surrounding Jan. 6, according to a letter from Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph Cuffari released Thursday, which was addressed to Thompson, among others. Cuffari also criticized the Secret Service for delaying the provision of other documents.
The Secret Service had rejected the allegations against him: “The allegation that the secret service maliciously deleted messages on request is false,” it said in a statement. The data was lost in a previously planned exchange in January 2021 because cell phones were factory reset.
Supporters of the then US President Donald Trump had violently stormed the seat of parliament in the capital Washington that day. Congress met there to certify the victory of his Democratic challenger Joe Biden in the presidential election. The committee is now working on the attack.
The text messages could be crucial to House and Justice Department investigations: Secret Service agents were with Trump that day and Vice President Mike Pence, who was hiding in the Capitol after Trump supporters called for him to be hanged.
