The Home choose committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol assault has subpoenaed the U.S. Secret Service to acquire textual content messages from across the time of the assault, the committee mentioned Friday evening.
The subpoena comes two days after the Division of Homeland Safety's inspector basic instructed lawmakers that the Secret Service had erased textual content messages from Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, 2021. In a letter despatched to congressional committees, Inspector Common Joseph Cuffari mentioned his workplace was notified that texts have been erased as a part of a "system alternative program." However Cuffari instructed lawmakers the erasures got here after he requested the messages as a part of an investigation into the company's response to the Capitol assault.
The Secret Service has denied it maliciously deleted the messages, saying as a substitute some information was misplaced throughout a pre-planned system migration.
In a letter to the Secret Service, Jan. 6 choose committee Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson mentioned the committee has spent months making an attempt to acquire paperwork from segments of the Division of Homeland Safety pertaining to the occasions of January 5-7.
He acknowledged the committee was knowledgeable the erased textual content messages have been a part of a "device-replacement program."
Thompson identified, nevertheless, that the Secret Service mentioned in a July 14 assertion that although the "pre-planned, three-month system migration" triggered some information to be misplaced, "not one of the texts it [DHS Office of Inspector General] was looking for had been misplaced within the migration."
"Accordingly, the Choose Committee seeks the related textual content messages, in addition to any after motion studies which were issued in any and all divisions of the united states pertaining or relating in any strategy to the occasions of January 6, 2021," the letter mentioned.
The letter requested that the data be supplied no later than July 19.
Thompson's letter comes hours after Cuffari briefed members of the Jan. 6 committee on the textual content message erasures. Thompson instructed reporters after the briefing that members "needed to get the IGs perspective on what he thought was occurring."
He mentioned the committee was nonetheless inquisitive about acquiring the texts, and would have interaction with the Secret Service.
"The communications inside the Secret Service, who was defending the president and vice chairman on the essential time on Jan. 6 when the violence broke out, that is of the utmost curiosity to the committee," one other member of the panel, Rep. Elaine Luria, mentioned.
On Thursday, U.S. Secret Service spokesperson Steve Kopek referred to as "the insinuation that the Secret Service maliciously deleted textual content messages" following the DHS Inspector Common's request "false." He mentioned the company has been "absolutely cooperating with the OIG in each respect – whether or not it's interviews, paperwork, emails, or texts."
Kopek mentioned that in January 2021, earlier than the inspector basic's investigation had begun, the Secret Service "started to reset its cell phones to manufacturing facility settings as a part of a pre-planned, three-month system migration."
"In that course of, information resident on some telephones was misplaced," he mentioned.
The company mentioned Thursday that the Secret Service turned over 786,176 unredacted emails, and seven,678 Microsoft Groups chat messages to the DHS inspector basic, all referencing conversations and operational particulars associated to Jan. 6 and preparations main as much as it. These messages embrace textual content messages from the U.S. Capitol Police to the chief of the Secret Service Uniformed Division requesting emergency help on the Capitol.
Ellis Kim contributed reporting.