US Secret Service subpoenaed for 'erasing' text messages from phones linked to Jan 6 riot

The United States Secret Service (USSS) has been handed subpoena by the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot for allegedly deleting the text messages that have been understood as exchanged between January 5 and January 6, 2021. US Secret Service Director James Murray has been caught up in the report linked to deleted texts on the Secret Service phones.

In a letter published, the House Select Committee said that it has been looking for "all documents or materials that refer or relate to events" on January 6, 2021 Capitol siege, and that the record of the texts was found to be missing from the Secret Service's phones. It would be the first that the committee has issued a subpoena to an executive branch department like Secret Service overseen by Department of Homeland Security. 

US Secret Service 'knowingly erased text messages'

It is being stated in the letter that the US Secret Service knowingly erased text messages on those provided dates after the record of it was requested by the officials overseeing the investigation into January 6, 2021 Capitol riot. This was demanded in addition to the agency's response to the US Capitol attack. The text messages, however, were erazed from the cellphones in what the Secret Service explained as "a part of device-replacement program." House Select Committee's letter reads: "The USSS erased those text messages after OIG requested records of electronic communications from the USSS, as part of" an evaluation of events "at the Capitol on January 6." 

The Office of Inspector General noted that it took Secret Service weeks-long delays to present those records, and that they created confusion about whether all of the record was duly handed over. It remains unclear if any excuse for the same was fabricated. But the Secret Service, in its response statement said, that the these text messages were not deleted intentionally. "The messages were lost in a pre-planned data migration project," they alleged. 

Secret Service officers have categorically denied allegations that they have been reluctant to cooperate with the Inspector General. The panel asserted that it seeks “all relevant text messages, as well as any after action reports that have been issued in any and all divisions of the USSS pertaining or relating in any way to the events of January 6, 2021.” The USSS said that the committee “has its "full and unwavering cooperation." Agency spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement, "We plan to continue that cooperation by responding swiftly to the Committee’s subpoena.”

Image: AP