The US Secret Service (SS) erased text messages from January 5 and 6, 2021, shortly after they were requested by oversight officials investigating the agency’s response to the US Capitol riot, according to a letter given to the House select committee investigating the insurrection and first obtained by CNN.
The National Archives and Records Administration is investigating the “alleged unauthorized deletion” of a large cache of text messages sent by Secret Service officials in the days surrounding the attack. There are only two explanations for the deletions, one is stupidity and the other is malicious intent to hide evidence.
The Department of Homeland Security inspector general, who is charged with overseeing the Secret Service, has criticized the agency’s handling of the matter and said some of the messages were deleted after he requested them in February 2021.
The SS ushered then-Vice President Mike Pence to a secure loading dock beneath Capitol grounds while the Jan. 6 attack was underway. Pence aides have described efforts by his detail to get Pence to leave the Capitol in his motorcade, which Pence refused to do, contending that he wanted to remain in the Capitol until the counting of electoral votes was complete. The vice president’s motorcade retreating from the insurrection would have been seen world wide as a symbol of defeat. Was the SS complicit in wanting to achieve that defeat?
The Homeland Security Department’s watchdog has opened an investigation into the loss of Secret Service text messages. The January 6 committee is seeking missing text messages from 24 Secret Service employees related to Jan. 5 and the day of the Capitol attack. The committee has subpoenaed the texts for clues to what happened that day, including reports of then-President Donald Trump being blocked by agents from accompanying his supporters to the Capitol.
Senator Gary Peters, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, called the allegations “concerning” in a statement August 11, 2022. “We need to get to the bottom of whether the Secret Service destroyed federal records or the Department of Homeland Security obstructed oversight. The DHS Inspector General needs these records to do its independent oversight and the public deserves to have a full picture of what occurred on January 6th,” the Michigan Democrat said.