According to NBC News, the phones were confiscated “shortly after” the office of Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph Cuffari (pictured), a Trump appointee, notified the Secret Service that there would be a criminal investigation into text messages from January 5 and 6 that were deleted by the agency.
Tuesday’s bombshell report claims that the Secret Service confiscated the phones of twenty-five agents involved in the response to last year’s attack on the US Capitol.
According to NBC News, they were handed over to the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General’s office.
In July, Trump appointee Inspector General Joseph Cuffari informed the Secret Service that he was opening a criminal investigation into the missing text messages from January 5 and 6, 2017.
According to a letter sent by Cuffari’s office to the relevant House and Senate committees, messages that could have been relevant to multiple investigations into the January 6 riot, including the House select committee’s high-profile investigation, were deleted upon request.
A few days later, on July 19, Cuffari’s deputy requested that the agency cease “further investigative activities regarding the collection and preservation of the evidence” in the texts.
The 24 phones were reportedly handed over to the watchdog office “shortly thereafter.”
A spokesperson for the Secret Service referred DailyMail.com to the inspector general’s office in response to questions about the items, including the phones, that were provided.
The work to investigate the travesty of the January 6th Insurrection is crucial to the Secret Service’s mission, which is to protect the nation’s highest government leaders, a spokesperson told DailyMail.com.
We have and will continue to fully cooperate with all oversight efforts, and we have provided all requested information in response to these inquiries.
The office of Cuffari did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
The Secret Service texts are sought in relation to investigations into how the attack on the US Capitol on January 6 unfolded.
NBC reported on Tuesday that some agents were unhappy that their leaders confiscated the phones unilaterally.
The Secret Service publicly refuted the inspector general’s claim that text messages were purposefully deleted after being requested by his office.
The agency asserted that the deletion of messages was the result of a regularly scheduled update that wiped nearly all existing data from the phones. It was asserted that the transformation was already in progress when the texts were requested.
Cuffari has been accused of interfering improperly with the investigation.
CNN formerly reported that he knew the Secret Service deleted the messages in May 2021 and informed DHS in July of that year that he was no longer looking for them.
In a letter sent earlier this year, the leaders of the January 6 committee and the House Oversight Committee accused Cuffari of obstructing their investigations, which they termed ‘unacceptable.’
In an August letter, Democratic Representatives Bennie Thompson and Carolyn Maloney wrote, “If you continue to refuse to comply with our requests, we will be forced to consider alternative measures to ensure your compliance.”
Interest in Secret Service text messages is primarily a result of explosive testimony provided by former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson during one of the committee’s final summer hearings on January 6th.
Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide, asserted that Trump lunged at his Secret Service security detail on January 6, 2017, when they refused to transport him to the US Capitol with his supporters.
According to Hutchinson’s testimony, the ex-president lunged for the steering wheel of his vehicle’s escort and then for an agent’s neck when they refused to take him to the US Capitol with his supporters.
She was allegedly informed that Trump yelled at his Secret Service protection, ‘I’m the f***ing president!’ Take me to the Capitol immediately.
Trump has refuted the claims.
On September 28, the January 6 committee will most likely hold its last hearing.
The vice chair of the panel, Republican Representative Liz Cheney, stated over the weekend that the Secret Service provided roughly 800,000 pages of communications to lawmakers.
However, the majority of the requested text messages from January 5 and January 6 remain missing.
Cheney stated at the Texas Tribune Festival, “The texts themselves, in many cases, are gone or other forms of communication, such as Teams messages and emails, and other forms of communication we have received approximately 800,000 pages.”