Tuesday (July 19) marks a critical turning point in the Jan. 6 Select Committee’s tug-of-war with the Secret Service over text messages sent on Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, 2021, as the panel expects to receive a trove of text messages from the agency.
If the transfer of the texts materializes, it will follow days of uncertainty that started when the Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General claimed the Secret Service had erased the text messages, a claim the USSS denied.
After the OIG made the claims and the panel had a meeting with Joseph Cufarri, the Inspector General, it subpoenaed the Secret Service for the texts late on Friday evening.
Earlier in the week, Cufarri had sent a letter to the Jan. 6 Panel claiming that the USSS had expunged text messages from the day before and the day of the Capitol riot as part of a “device-replacement program.”
The erasure, Cufarri asserted, came after the “OIG requested records of electronic communications” from the Secret Service.
Acquiring the text messages from the Secret Service became of utmost importance, following claims a former White House aide made about a confrontation between then-President Donald Trump and his security detail after Trump was informed he couldn’t join Protestors at the Capitol on Jan. 6.
To corroborate the testimony given by Cassidy Hutchinson, the White House aide who relayed a retelling of the events between Trump and the others, the Jan. 6 panel had to retain the text messages, with Friday’s subpoena giving the agency until Tuesday (July 19) to produce the information.
