WASHINGTON (Fwrd Axis) — The Secret Service erased text messages from both the day before and the day of January 6 after the Department of Homeland Security’s watchdog investigating the agency’s response to the attack on the U.S. Capitol requested the records.
The letter was originally sent to the House and Senate Homeland Security Committees by the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General. It states multiple messages from Jan. 5 and Jan. 6 had been erased “as part of a device-replacement program.”
The Intercept first reported the content of the letters.
Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph Cuffari said in the letter that the messages were erased after the request for the records.
“The USSS erased those text messages after OIG requested records of electronic communications from the USSS, as part of our evaluation of events at the Capitol on January 6,” Cuffari said.
The news will likely put a new spotlight on the Secret Service’s response to the attack. Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson provided bombshell testimony last month, detailing that the Secret Service was working through plans while he was on stage to get Trump to the Capitol safely. National Security Council chat logs confirm Trump wanted to walk with his supporters against the advice of Secret Service agents.
Hutchinson testified that Tony Ornato told her that Trump was screaming, “I’m the f**king President. Take me up to the Capitol now.”
She said according to Ornato, Trump “reached up toward the front of the vehicle to grab at the steering wheel” and then used his other hand “lunge” at Engel.
Neither of the agents named in the testimony have commented on Hutchinson’s testimony but following the hearing on the same day, a Secret Service official said Engel would deny parts of the story regarding Trump grabbing at the steering wheel and lunging toward an agent on his detail.
