House Select Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., announced on Friday that the committee has issued a subpoena for Secret Service text messages related to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Photo by Ken Cedeno/UPI |
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July 16 (UPI) -- The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol has issued a subpoena for records from the U.S. Secret Service after a government watchdog said earlier this week that the agency erased texts from the day of and the day prior to the riots.
In a letter transmitting the notice of subpoena on Friday to Secret Service Director James Murray, committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., sought the Secret Service text messages from Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, 2021, and reiterated three previous requests for the information.
The notice came after Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph Cuffari accused the agency of erasing the text messages after his office requested them. He made the allegations in a letter Wednesday to the House and Senate homeland security committees.
Cuffari also said the messages were erased as "part of a device-replacement program."
Homeland security personnel also repeatedly told the Office of Inspector General they could not provide records directly to the watchdog and that such records had to be reviewed first by department attorneys, he added.
"This review led to weeks-long delays in OIG obtaining records and created confusion over whether all records had been produced," Cuffari wrote.
On Thursday, Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told NBC News that the agency began a "pre-planned, three-month system migration," in January 2021, which included resetting some mobile phones to factory settings, resulting in some data loss.
Guglielmi added that "none of the texts it [Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General] was seeking had been lost in the migration."
Thompson said in the letter to Murray on Friday that the select committee "seeks the relevant text messages, as well as any after action reports," related to the events of Jan. 6, 2021.
