DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari wrote in a letter to the House and Senate Homeland Security committees, which was given to the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on Capitol Hill, that the text messages from Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, 2021 had been “deleted as part of a device replacement program,” according to a copy of the letter obtained by The Hill and first reported by The Intercept. “The USSS deleted these text messages after the OIG requested electronic communications records from the USSS as part of our assessment of the events on Capitol Hill on January 6,” Cuffari continued. The letter said DHS officials had told the OIG they could not provide records directly to the inspector general until they were reviewed by lawyers. “Second, DHS staff have repeatedly told OIG inspectors that they were not allowed to provide records directly to the OIG and that those records first had to be reviewed by DHS attorneys. This review led to weeks of delays in obtaining OIG records and created confusion as to whether all records had been created,” he added. Speaking to reporters Thursday, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the chairman of the House select committee, said they had just received the letter and did not immediately know who deleted the text messages. “Well, they haven’t been clear about how, they just know it’s not there,” Thompson said. “And we had asked them a while ago to look at it. So it didn’t come from the committee’s side, it came from the Motherland’s side. And this was theirs — it was a letter. I haven’t seen the report yet. So it’s a concern, obviously, and if there’s a way to reconstruct the text … we will,” he added. A spokesman for the DHS Office of Inspector General declined to elaborate on the letter when reached for comment by The Intercept. “To maintain the integrity of our work and protect our independence, we do not discuss our ongoing assessments or communications with Congress,” the spokesperson told The Intercept. The Hill has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General and the US Secret Service for comment. Speaking on CNN last month, Marc Short, former chief of staff to former Vice President Pence, said he contacted the Secret Service before the day of the Capitol riot. “And I think with thousands of people coming down to Washington hoping for a different outcome, I just thought it was important to be alerted to that,” Short told the network. “But I didn’t have any specific intelligence, I didn’t know the Capitol was going to be attacked like it was.” The Secret Service also appeared during the dramatic January 6 panel testimony last month by Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. He offered a second-hand account that Trump tried to grab the steering wheel of the car he was in and tried to grope a member of the Secret Service staff after being told he couldn’t go to Capitol Hill on January 6. Hillicon Valley — Statewide candidates fuel election security concerns Balance/Sustainability — A-list celebrities using too much water The Secret Service denied the altercation took place. “The Secret Service has cooperated fully with the select committee since its inception in the spring of 2021, and we will continue to do so by responding formally and in writing to the committee regarding new allegations that emerged in today’s testimony,” the Secret Service said in the statement after the testimony. her.
