FILE PHOTO: Committee Chairman Democratic Consultant from Mississippi Bennie Thompson departs for a break through the seventh public listening to by the U.S. Home Choose Committee to Examine the January sixth Assault on the U.S. Capitol, in Washington, DC, U.S., July 12, 2022. Shawn Thew/Pool through REUTERS/File Photograph
WASHINGTON — The U.S. congressional panel probing the Jan. 6 2021 assault on the Capitol plans to ask the Secret Service about its alleged deletion of textual content messages sought by a watchdog investigating the company’s response to the assault, the panel’s chairman stated.
The watchdog on Friday met the Home of Representatives panel after accusing the Secret Service of deleting “many” textual content messages in a letter to lawmakers.
Consultant Bennie Thompson, a Democrat who chairs the panel probing the assault, informed CNN that the committee plans to contact Secret Service officers to ask in regards to the alleged erasure of textual content messages, together with the company’s course of for cleansing out information to see if that coverage was adopted.
The inspector normal, Joseph Cuffari, met with the committee probing the assault behind closed doorways on Friday, footage from CNN confirmed.
“We now want to speak to the Secret Service…. Our expectation is to achieve out to them,” Thompson informed CNN.
Committee member Jamie Raskin informed reporters on Friday that the panel was decided to retrieve textual content messages from Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, 2021, that have been allegedly deleted.
The Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) inspector normal’s workplace (OIG) despatched a letter to lawmakers on Wednesday, saying that “many” messages had been erased by the Secret Service with a device-replacement program after the watchdog requested for the information.
The Secret Service disputed that accusation on Thursday, saying some cellphone information was misplaced throughout a routine system migration, however that all the requested texts had been saved.
“A ‘routine’ cleansing of information would require a course of, so we need to see what that course of is,” Thompson stated on Friday.
Consultant Raskin, a Democrat, additionally raised considerations and stated on Friday: “We have to resolve it. But when these texts are gone, we’re decided to seek out them.”
He additionally acknowledged there have been “contradictory representations” from the Secret Service and the watchdog about whether or not texts have been deleted.
It was not clear from the letter what messages the inspector normal’s workplace believed had been deleted or what proof they could comprise.
The Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump adopted weeks of false claims by the previous president that he received the 2020 election.
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US Secret Service deleted texts sought in Jan. 6 probe, watchdog says
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