House January 6 panel subpoenas Secret Service for deleted texts
The subpoena is the first issued to an executive branch agency; in connection to an inquiry into alleged communication deletion.
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Chair of the select committee, US Congressman Bennie Thompson
The House Select Committee investigating the Capitol attack has issued a subpoena to the US Secret Service for text conversations believed to have been deleted between 5 and 6 January 2021, pursuing what investigators say may be an instance of corruptly destroyed data.
The subpoena issued late on Friday – the first to an executive branch agency – compelled the production of messages and after-action reports concerning the attack as part of sweeping records demand aiming to establish the circumstances around the erasure of some communications and obtain any that remain.
Tea was spilled in the last #Capitol riot hearing, as Cassidy Hutchinson revealed firsthand stories about #Trump's chaotic behavior before, during, and after the riots.#CapitolRiot #CapitolAttack #January6thHearings pic.twitter.com/7ko35ToJRM
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) June 29, 2022
The chair of the select committee, Congressman Bennie Thompson, stated in a letter to the director of the secret service, James Murray, that the agency tasked with protecting the president and vice president should be able to produce the messages because its spokesperson claimed none of the texts in question were lost.
The revelation that texts between secret service agents were erased in a "device-replacement program" came in a letter to Congress from the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security, the secret service's watchdog.
Read next: More evidence piles up against Trump in Jan 6 hearings
On Friday, a government watchdog said that the US Secret Service and the law enforcement agency in charge of protecting the president, destroyed texts exchanged by officers during the January 6 Capitol attack.
The inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security, Joseph Cuffari, told Congress in a letter dated Wednesday that his office has had difficulty acquiring information from the Secret Service for the dates January 5 and 6, 2021.
The messages could be crucial in investigations by the House of Representatives and the Justice Department into whether Donald Trump and his close advisers encouraged the deadly insurgency by the former President's supporters at the US Capitol, which aimed to prevent Democratic rival Joe Biden from being certified as the winner of the November 2020 election.
