The letter, from the DHS inspector general, was first reported by The Intercept and shared with the Jan. 6 committee as well as the House and Senate Homeland Security committees. “It’s obviously worrying. And if there’s a way to reconstruct the texts or what have you, we will,” committee chairman Bennie Thompson told Axios on Jan. 6. “I think it’s important for us to get as much information as possible about how this discrepancy came about and move forward from there.” The Secret Service told the IG’s office that the collection of messages was deleted as part of a “device replacement” program, according to the letter, though that’s apparently not the only irregularity. According to the letter, from DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari, the Department of Homeland Security told investigators it could not turn over the records directly to the IG’s office until they were reviewed by DHS lawyers, causing “weeks of delays” and “confusion if all the records had been created.” The Independent has approached the Secret Service for comment. The Office of Inspector General declined to comment on the nature of its ongoing communications with the agencies and Congress. Former White House official Tommy Vietor called the missing messages “inexcusable” in a post on Twitter Thursday. The highly trained corps of agents protecting the president and senior officials played a central role in the events of January 6, something that has been scrutinized in all hearings this summer and beyond. Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide, has testified before Congress that she was told that an “enraged” Donald Trump tried to grab the steering wheel of the presidential limousine and slammed into an agent in anger after being told he could not visit her last minute on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6 as part of his lobbying campaign against congressional voters. (Mr Trump has denied this.) Meanwhile, at the Capitol itself, Secret Service agents tried to move Vice President Mike Pence to a safe location after pro-Trump rioters stormed the building, which would have made him unable to certify the results of the 2020 election. “I’m not getting in the car,” Pence reportedly said, according to I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump’s Catastrophic Final Year, a book by Washington Post reporters Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig. “If I get into this vehicle, you will take off.” It was a turning point in the January 6 chaos, according to insiders. “People need to understand that if Pence had listened to the Secret Service and left Capitol Hill, this could have been a lot worse,” an unnamed congressional official told The Intercept. “It could have been a successful coup, not just an attempted one.” A Trump ally with ties to the Secret Service was reportedly behind the effort to oust Pence. Tony Ornato, a Secret Service agent whom Trump took the unusual step of naming his deputy White House chief of staff, reportedly told a top Pence adviser that the vice president would be transferred to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. “You can’t do that, Tony,” the adviser reportedly replied. “Leave him where he is. He has a job to do. I know you guys very well. You’ll fly him to Alaska if you get the chance. Do not do it.” (Mr Ornato has denied this account.) The agent also reportedly told Ms. Hutchinson, the White House aide who testified before the committee on January 6, about the incident with the steering wheel in the limousine. The Secret Service said Mr. Ornato had “absolutely no involvement in anti-presidential movements or operations on Jan. 6, 2021” and that he is prepared to testify a third time before the Jan. 6 committee.
