Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Dems Allege Cover-up on Secret Service Texts, Demand Records
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 2 years ago on
August 2, 2022

Share

 

Top congressional Democrats have requested sit-down interviews and internal documents from the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general as part of a deepening investigation into the agency’s handling of now-deleted Secret Service text messages surrounding the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

The leaders of the powerful House Oversight and Homeland Security committees wrote a letter to Inspector General Joseph Cuffari on Monday, detailing the urgent need for interviews with his staff regarding new evidence of alleged efforts to cover up the erasure of Secret Service communications.

“We are writing with grave new concerns over your lack of transparency and independence, which appear to be jeopardizing the integrity of a crucial investigation run by your office,” House Oversight Chair Carolyn Maloney and Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson wrote in the letter. They also renewed their calls for Cuffari to recuse himself from investigations of the erased texts.

The committees said it has obtained evidence that shows the inspector general’s office first learned of the missing Secret Service text messages, as part of its investigation into the attack on the U.S. Capitol, in May 2021. And that emails between top DHS IG officials show the agency decided to abandon efforts to recover those text messages in July 2021, nearly a year before they first informed Congress they were erased.

“These documents raise troubling new concerns that your office not only failed to notify Congress for more than a year that critical evidence in this investigation was missing, but your senior staff deliberately chose not to pursue that evidence and then appear to have taken steps to cover up these failures,” the letter continued.

Cuffari sent a letter to the two committees last month disclosing that Secret Service text messages sent and received around Jan. 6, 2021, were deleted despite requests from Congress and federal investigators that they be preserved.

The deletion of the messages has raised the prospect of lost evidence that could shed further light on then-President Donald Trump’s actions during the insurrection, particularly after testimony about his confrontation with security as he tried to join supporters at the Capitol. Since that July 19 letter, a series of revelations about the Secret Service and DHS’s mishandling of those communications have come to light, prompting a congressional probe into the matter.

The letter Monday noted one email, dated July 27, 2021, where Thomas Kait, the deputy IG, wrote to Jim Crumpacker, a senior liaison official at DHS: “Jim, please use this email as a reference to our conversation where I said we no longer request phone records and text messages from the USSS (United States Secret Service) relating to the events on January 6th.”

Lawmakers said they want to know why the watchdog officials chose “not to pursue critical information from the Secret Service at this point in this investigation,” and only decided to renew their request to DHS for certain text messages more than four months later, in December 2021.

Lawmakers also revealed Monday that Ken Cuccinelli, who was DHS acting deputy secretary on Jan. 6, was using a personal phone at the time, but the inspector general did not report that fact to Congress. Cuccinelli’s texts, along with those of then-acting Secretary Chad Wolf, have also been reportedly erased.

The lawmakers demanded that the IG’s office turn over by Aug. 8 all documents and communications related to the decision not to collect or recover any text messages and related to the deletion, erasure, unavailability, or recovery of text messages from the Secret Service, Wolf, and Cuccinelli.

The committees also asked for the agency to make Kait and fellow deputy inspector general Kristen Fredricks available for transcribed interviews no later than Aug. 15.

RELATED TOPICS:

DON'T MISS

Trump Criticizes Judge and His Daughter After Gag Order in Hush-Money Case

DON'T MISS

House Speaker Mike Johnson Headed to Fresno on April 4

DON'T MISS

Bredefeld, Smittcamp Debate the Salary of Valley Children’s CEO

DON'T MISS

CA’s Liberal Government Has a Long History of Caving to Special Interests

DON'T MISS

NBC Has Cut Ties With Former RNC Head Ronna McDaniel After Employee Objections, Some on the Air

DON'T MISS

Chinese Leader Xi Issues a Positive Message to US Business Leaders as Ties Improve

DON'T MISS

Trump Media Group CEO Nunes Headlines Fresno GOP Event

DON'T MISS

California Democratic Lawmakers Seek Ways to Combat Retail Theft While Keeping Progressive Policy

DON'T MISS

Israel’s Netanyahu Rebuffs US Plea to Halt Rafah Offensive. Tensions Rise Ahead of Washington Talks

DON'T MISS

Speaker Mike Johnson Faces Threat of Ouster from Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene

No data was found

Former Sen. Joe Lieberman, Democrats’ VP Pick in 2000, Dead at 82

14 hours ago

Trump Criticizes Judge and His Daughter After Gag Order in Hush-Money Case

15 hours ago

CA Insurance Market ‘in Chaos,’ Says Former Insurance Commissioner. Can Lara Fix It?

16 hours ago

Stock Market Today: S&P 500 Sets a Record After Wall Streets Breaks Out of Its Lull

16 hours ago

House Speaker Mike Johnson Headed to Fresno on April 4

16 hours ago

Bredefeld, Smittcamp Debate the Salary of Valley Children’s CEO

16 hours ago

CA’s Liberal Government Has a Long History of Caving to Special Interests

17 hours ago

Corrupt Process? Bullard, Edison Parents Blast Handling of Superintendent Search

17 hours ago

Police Had About 90 Seconds to Stop Traffic Before Baltimore Bridge Fell. 6 Workers Are Feared Dead

18 hours ago

NBC Has Cut Ties With Former RNC Head Ronna McDaniel After Employee Objections, Some on the Air

18 hours ago

Supermom Carmi Is Ready to Be Embraced by Her Forever Family

Carmi, an incredible 1-year-old kitten mama, can be very gentle but can also get overstimulated and give love bites. Even her warm, honey-co...
Animals /

2 hours ago

Animals /
2 hours ago

Supermom Carmi Is Ready to Be Embraced by Her Forever Family

9 hours ago

Ukrainian Navy Says a Third of Russian Warships in the Black Sea Have Been Destroyed or Disabled

Composite image of President Trump and Devin Nunes
13 hours ago

Wired Wednesday: How Going to Work for Trump Turned Devin Nunes Into a Millionaire

14 hours ago

Former Sen. Joe Lieberman, Democrats’ VP Pick in 2000, Dead at 82

15 hours ago

Trump Criticizes Judge and His Daughter After Gag Order in Hush-Money Case

16 hours ago

CA Insurance Market ‘in Chaos,’ Says Former Insurance Commissioner. Can Lara Fix It?

16 hours ago

Stock Market Today: S&P 500 Sets a Record After Wall Streets Breaks Out of Its Lull

16 hours ago

House Speaker Mike Johnson Headed to Fresno on April 4

MENU

CONNECT WITH US

Search

Send this to a friend