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Top Democrats, Alleging Cover-Up, Seek Testimony on Secret Service Texts


WASHINGTON – Two influential House Democrats on Monday called on two officials at the Department of Homeland Security’s independent watchdog to testify before Congress about the agency’s handling of text messages. Secret Service documents missing since the day of the January 6th Capitol attack, alleging their office engaged in a cover-up.

In a letter sent on Monday with Joseph V. Cuffari, the agency’s inspector general who heads two congressional committees, said they have developed “serious new concerns about your lack of transparency and independence, which seem to cause jeopardize the integrity of a vital investigation run by your office.”

The letter from Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, Democrat of New York and chair of the Oversight Committee, and Representative Bennie Thompson, Mississippi Democrat and Chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, extended a request the couple made last week that Mr. Cuffari stepped aside from the investigation. It also called for two of his office’s top employees to testify this month.

The Office of the Inspector General did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This is the last in a drama about what became of the text messages sent and received by Secret Service agents around the time of the Capitol riots.

Mr. Cuffari last month informed the House committee investigating the January 6 attacks that message has been deleted, indicating that it occurred as part of a device replacement program, and that the department stopped looking into what became of them because they were the subject of a criminal investigation. He said those with missing messages included agents who were part of former President Donald J. Trump’s security details.

In their letter on Monday, Ms Maloney and Mr Thompson, who also led the January 6 council, wrote that their committee had obtained “new evidence” that Mr Cuffari’s office had “secretly given up”. attempts to collect text messages from the Secret Service. Service over a year ago. ‘ They added that his office ‘may have taken steps to cover up the extent of the omission of records, raising further concerns about your ability to independently and effectively carry out your duties. himself as the inspector general.”

Letters from legislators quote report from CNN that the inspector general learned in May 2021 – seven months earlier than previously revealed – that the Secret Service had missed important text messages.

The letter also said that the committees were aware that Mr. Cuffari’s office was notified in February of text messages from Chad Wolf and Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, two top political officials at the Department of Security. Inland on January 6, 2021, may not be visited. They added that the inspector general was also aware that Mr. Cuccinelli was using his personal phone and had not been able to collect messages from that device.

Mr. Wolf wrote on Twitter that he “complied with all data retention laws and returned all my fully loaded devices to the Department. Dots. DHS has all of my texts, emails, phone logs, schedules, etc. Any missing data issues need to be resolved to DHS. “

Since then, lawmakers have raised questions about not only why the text messages went missing, but why Mr. Cuffari didn’t notify Congress sooner or take steps to get them back sooner.

The committees received an email from Thomas Kait, deputy inspector general on July 27, 2021, stating that “we are no longer requesting phone records and text messages from the USSS regarding the events on January 6″. He uses the abbreviation for United States Secret Service.

The lawmakers also said their panel had gathered evidence that it was not until four months later, on December 3, 2021, that the inspector general finally submitted a new request to the department for certain text messages. copy.

Mr Kait, they said, removed primary language from a February 2022 memo highlighting the importance of text messages and criticizing the department for failing to comply with a December 3, 2021 request. .

Ms. Maloney and Mr. Thompson have called Mr. Kait and Kristen Fredricks, chief of staff, to sit for interviews by August 15.

Mr. Cuffari caused a firestorm on Capitol Hill last month when he reported that the text messages had been deleted, even after he requested them as part of an investigation into the events that occurred. on January 6.

The Secret Service refuted the inspector general’s findings, saying it “lost” data on “a number of phones” as part of a plan three months ahead of a “system migration” in January 2021. , but stressed that no documents related to the investigation “have been lost in the migration. The agency said that the project was underway before receiving notice from the inspector general about the preservation of its data, and that it did not delete the text messages “malicious”.

In response, committee January 6 issued a subpoena to the Secret Service searches for text messages from January 5 and 6, 2021, believed to have been deleted, as well as any post-action reports.

The Secret Service said it may not be able to recover the bulk of text messages deleted from phones its agents used around the time of last year’s Capitol attack, but sent “thousands of pages of documents” and other records related to the decision made on January 6.

Rep. “.

“It has reached the point where the inspector general needs an inspector general,” he said. “Looks like it was just a gratuitous scandal of his responsibility.”





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