JUST IN: 24 Secret Service Phones From Jan. 6 Were CONFISCATED By Criminal Investigation
The agency investigating Secret Service’s response to the January 6 attack on the Capitol confiscated 24 phones from agents involved in that response, according to brand-new reporting from NBC News.
Interest in the Secret Service communications reached a fever pitch after the bombshell January 6 hearing testimony of Cassidy Hutchinson, former top aide to Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and fly on he wall for some jaw-dropping revelations that included an altercation between Trump and members of his protective detail.
But shortly after that came the news that Secret Service text messages from Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, 2021 had been deleted by the agency.
According to a new and exclusive report from NBC News correspondent Julia Ainsley, a new line of evidence is available for the investigation being run by Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph Cuffari:
Senior leadership at the Secret Service confiscated the cellphones of 24 agents involved in the agency’s response to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol and handed them over to the Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General, according to two sources with knowledge of the action.
The agency handed over the phones “shortly after” a July 19 letter was sent by Inspector General Joseph Cuffari’s office around the time he launched a criminal probe into the Secret Service’s missing text messages from Jan. 6, the sources said.
It is unclear what, if any, information the Office of Inspector General has been able to obtain from the cellphones.
The revelation that Cuffari’s office has had access to the phones since late July or August raises new questions about the progress of his criminal investigation into the missing text messages and what, if anything, the public may be able to learn about communications between agents on Jan. 6, 2021.
Ainsley reports that agents weren’t happy about the confiscation, but the phones belong to the government so that’s just how it is.
On Tuesday morning’s edition of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Ainsley shared her reporting, as well as some additional color about Cuffari, a Trump appointee who has been criticized for how he has run the investigation.
“We actually learned as recently as last Friday that some of his own employees think that he isn’t doing enough and is sometimes standing in their way to do thoughtful, independent and thorough investigations,” Ainsley said of Cuffari.
