MADRID, July 16 (.) –
The committee in charge of investigating the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, has asked the United States Secret Service this Friday for the text messages deleted during the day of the insurrection and the following 24 hours.
The Democratic representative of Mississippi and one of the chairmen of the committee, Bennie Thompson, has sent a letter to the director of the Secret Service, James Murray, asking him for the text messages that, although they were deleted, are recoverable, CNN has reported.
The US Secret Service (USSS), in charge of protecting the president of the United States –among others– has been at the center of the committee’s attention for a few days after panel witnesses described that former president Donald Trump demanded his protective service to take him to the Capitol shortly before the rioters stormed the building.
The messages could prove that Trump’s request is true, so in a preventive way, someone could have deleted them, according to the aforementioned chain. Also, the committee has concluded, the Secret Service deleted the text messages shortly after they were first requested by the panel on February 26, 2021.
Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph Cuffari’s office later notified the committee that the Secret Service performed the deletion of the messages as part of a program to change the devices they used.
“The Secret Service has reported the deletion of the messages in response to this office’s request,” he told the panel in a letter, picked up by CNN.
The historic presidential protection agency has already rejected “any malicious suggestion” that it has deliberately deleted the messages and has reiterated that it cooperates “fully” with the inspector general’s office “in all aspects: whether it is interviews, documents, emails or text messages”.
