The tug of war between the investigators and the Secret Service will intensify on Tuesday when the panel examining the Capitol riot expects to receive a trove of agency text messages.
A government watchdog told the committee that the elusive messages were erased by the Secret Service only to have the agency deny the charge.
The House select committee subpoenaed the Secret Service for the texts after meeting with the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security.
The agency had expunged text messages from January 5 and January 6 as part of a device replacement program. The office of inspector general requested records of electronic communications from the agency.
The investigators have accused Trump of inciting the Capitol attack in an effort to cling to power after his election defeat, and they want to know if the "erased" messages might reveal new details about Trump's actions and intentions.
A former top West Wing aide testified about a confrontation between Trump and his security detail in January, and the focus on the Secret Service has increased. Cassidy Hutchinson, the aide, gave that account secondhand, and some of the agents involved have disputed it.
The select committee wants to cast a wide net when it comes to the Secret Service, which on Jan. 6 was protecting not only Trump but also his vice president, Mike Pence, who was a target of the violent mob that invaded the Capitol.
The agency was given until Tuesday to deliver the communications.
The spokeswoman for the department said that it wasn't true, that it wasn't fair, and that they had relevant texts. We said, 'Fine, if you have them, we need them.'
We are expecting to get them by Tuesday. Lofgren said that they would see.
On the heels of Friday's summons, Tuesday's deadline is the fastest the panel has demanded from one of its subpoena targets, a sign lawmakers have little patience for resolving the mystery over the messages.
The Secret Service will abide by the 10 a.m. curfew, according to Anthony Guglielmi. The committee has already seen what it has been given.
He denied that the agency was hiding anything from the panel.
Guglielmi told The Hill that they would respond to all of the subpoena in detail.
Almost 800,000 documents, emails, radio transmissions, planning records, operational plans, Microsoft Teams chat messages were provided by us. All of that will be provided by us. We will respond to the committee's subpoena in the best way we can.
The loss of data was described by the Secret Service as part of a three-month system migration.
Data on some phones was lost in that process.
Guglielmi said that because the Secret Service avoids text messages for security reasons, there were not many to share.
We do not communicate via text message. He said that business is not done via text message.
We don't have reason to say the texts were lost. I don't know how you know those people are texting. They uploaded their records after they were told to. This is part of the communication we are going to have with the committee. People say they lost text messages. What do you know about the text messages?
According to The Guardian, Cuffari expressed optimism that there may be a way to reconstruct lost messages during Friday's closed-door meeting.
Lawmakers on the committee stressed that the Secret Service could be in violation of federal records laws if they were unable to preserve data at a critical point in time.
Rep. Elaine Luria said on CNN that they need to get to the bottom of the situation.
Federal agencies have a requirement to keep records. One would assume that an agency that was a key part of a critical event in our history has done everything possible to preserve those records, to analyze them, to determine what kind of things went wrong that day.
The committee needs all the texts from the 5th and 6th, according to Lofgren.
They didn't back up their data before they reset their phones. That isn't right. She didn't know why that would be
This information is needed to get the full picture.
The congressman expressed disbelief that the Secret Service wouldn't have erased any communications.
He said on CBS News's "Face the Nation" that it was crazy that the Secret Service deleted anything related to one of the most notorious days in American history. When it comes to the role of the secret service.
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