WASHINGTON — The House Committee Investigating the Attack on the United States Capitol a subpoena issued to the secret service late Friday looking for text messages dated January 5 and 6, 2021 that have allegedly been deleted, as well as any post-action reports.
In a statement, the committee’s chairman, Mississippi Democrat Bennie Thompson, said the panel was seeking records from “all divisions” of the Secret Service “that in any way pertain to or relate to the events of January 6, 2021.”
The development came after the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security, the Secret Service’s parent agency, met with the panel and told lawmakers that many of the texts had been erased as part of a device replacement program, even after the Inspector General had asked them as part of his investigation into the events of January 6.
The Secret Service has disputed parts of the inspector general’s findings, saying data on some phones was “lost” as part of a planned three-month “system migration” in January 2021, but none relevant to the investigation.
The agency said the project was underway before it received notice from the Inspector General to keep its records and that it did not “maliciously” delete text messages.
Key Revelations from the January 6 Hearings
Maryland Democrat and committee member Jamie Raskin said the panel wants to hear more from the Secret Service to try to understand what happened.
“The committee is absolutely determined to get to the bottom of this and find all the missing texts,” Mr. Raskin told reporters on Capitol Hill. “They are missing, but in the age of advanced technology, we must not give up.”
The subpoena comes as the commission continues its investigation, even as it prepares for what could be the last hearing of its summer schedule: a prime-time session on Thursday focused on former President Donald J. Trump’s 187 minutes of inactivity as a mob of his supporters attacked Congress.
mr. Byrne attended what was arguably the most dramatic meeting of the Trump presidency on December 18, 2020in which Michael T. Flynn, the former national security adviser, and Sidney Powell, the pro-Trump attorney, urged to confiscate voting machines and appoint Ms. Powell as special counsel to work on undoing the election.
Mr Thompson said the panel also discussed what to do with some more prominent potential witnesses.
Virginia Thomas, a political activist who pushed to overturn the 2020 election and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, is “still on the committee’s list” of witnesses to be called, even though she has rejected attempts to interview hersaid Mr. Thompson.
Mr. Thompson also told reporters that the panel continued to discuss – as members have been doing for months – whether it should try to call on Mr. Trump and Mr. Pence to testify, but lawmakers have not reached a conclusion on how to proceed.
The panel believes both men will likely fight attempts to have them testify, and some lawmakers fear a public battle over Mr Trump’s compliance would distract from the actual fact-finding investigation.
Mr Thompson has previously said the committee had ruled out a subpoena for Mr Pence, citing “important information” it had received from two of his aides, Marc Short and Greg Jacob.