By Aaron Miller-
The US National Archives has asked the Secret Service to conduct an internal investigation over “erased” text messages from the day before and the day of the Capitol attack, according to a letter sent to the agency’s records management officer on Tuesday.
In the letter sent to the Secret Service records officer by the National Archives requested the agency launch an internal review and report within 30 calendar days if it finds any texts were “improperly deleted”.
The letter has called for a report by law to report its findings regardless of whether the erased texts were relevant to the inspector general’s inquiry or the House January 6 investigation.
The Committee is very suspicious of the text messages, following the changing story provided for the text
The January 6 Committee are interested in the circumstances surrounding the depletion of the Secret Service texts have become central for the January 6 committee as it investigates how agents planned to move Donald Trump and Mike Pence as the violence unfolded.
It follows the House select committee investigation the insurrection, expecting to receive the deleted texts. The committee subpoenaed the Secret Service on Friday after an agency watchdog notified the Senate and House Homeland Security panels that texts from the two dates had been erased.
In the letter, the inspector general said certain Secret Service texts from 5 and 6 January 2021 were erased amid a “device replacement program” even after he requested the messages.
The panel’s seventh hearing on Tuesday argued that Trump instigated an attack on the US Capitol that was premeditated rather than spontaneous and that he cannot hide behind a defence of being “willfully blind”.
The committee also sought to show an explosive convergence between Trump’s interests and those of far-right extremist groups, although critics said the case fell short of direct collusion.
The Secret Service on Tuesday was also due to respond to a subpoena from the select committee, demanding access to the all important missing messages. The select panel’s subpoena was aimed at Secret Service Director James Murray.
The panel are surprised at the way that texts between agents could have disappeared the day before the Capitol attack and the day itself – could be lost in such an abrupt manner, the sources said.
The agency blamed a broad phone upgrade process that began before any investigators had requested messages, and a spokesperson said Tuesday they would cooperate with the NARA request.
Hours after the briefing, the committee issued a subpoena for any texts that had not been erased, as well as any after-action reports the agency might have conducted into its response to January 6
Laurence Brewer, the Chief of Records officer for the U.S Government sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security Records officer on Tuesday asking the agency to clear up if the text messages were deleted and explain why.
“If it is determined that any text messages have been improperly deleted (regardless of their relevance to the OIG/Congressional inquiry of the events on January 6, 2021), then the Secret Service must send NARA a report within 30 calendar days of the date of this letter with a report documenting the deletion,” Brewer wrote in the letter to Damian Kokinda, the DHS Records officer, referencing the DHS Office of Inspector General.
The Department of Homeland Security has previously said that it will comply with the subpoena request by the January 6 committee.
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