The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) opened an investigation this Thursday (21) into the disappearance of text messages about the Capitol intrusion, on January 6 of last year, from the files of the American Secret Service. The information is from the American newspaper Washington Post.
The move follows on from a letter sent last week by the inspector general of the US government department, Joseph Cuffari, to the House committee investigating the attack. He reported that the content was erased while replacing electronic devices, after being requested by authorities.
The document did not say whether the messages were intentionally deleted, nor what the content of the texts was, the senders or recipients.
The lack of information provoked a reaction. Democratic Representative Bennie Thompson, chairman of the House committee investigating responsibility for the Capitol invasion, said last week that the destruction of the messages was “worrying” and called for an investigation into the case. “If there is a way to reconstruct the texts, we will.”
Faced with the repercussion, the Department of Homeland Security ordered the Secret Service to stop the investigation into the disappearance of the messages, alleging a risk of interference in the work that is also carried out by DHS.
“We will conduct a full legal review to ensure that we fully cooperate with all oversight efforts and that they do not conflict with each other,” Anthony Guglielmi, a spokesman for the Secret Service, wrote in a statement Thursday.
Thompson had set a deadline for the Secret Service to deliver the messages that were not found until Tuesday (19), which did not happen. Faced with the lack of answers, agency officials were summoned to testify at the Chamber committee investigating the invasion.
Lawmakers say the material can help clarify the role of public figures and protesters in the episode considered one of the biggest attacks in history on American democracy.
Protesters stormed the Capitol on January 6 last year, minutes after former President Donald Trump, during a rally in Washington, urged activists to go to the House of Representatives. The action forced the House and Senate to lock the doors and paralyze the session that confirmed Joe Biden’s victory in the elections held in 2020.
Members of the Secret Service, the security agency responsible for protecting the president, were with Trump and his deputy, Mike Pence, on the date. Last month, a former White House official said as part of the Jan. 6 investigation that the Republican tried to force agency officials to take him to Capitol Hill to join his supporters.
In the eighth public hearing held by the House committee, which takes place on Thursday, Thompson said that former President Trump “recklessly paved the way for anarchy and corruption” during the invasion of the Capitol. “[Trump] tried to destroy our democratic institutions,” the Democrat reaffirmed, adding that those responsible for the attack must “respond to the law.”
