Over a MILLION Messages From Secret Service Agents Turned Over to January 6 Committee Ahead of Final Hearing
L: Brent Stirton/Getty Images R: GIORGIO VIERA/AFP via Getty Images
The Secret Service has turned over more than a million electronic communications from agents related to the attack on the Capitol as the January 6 Committee prepares for its final public hearing.
NBC News correspondent Julia Ainsley has been all over the saga of the Secret Service communications that became the subject of intense interest after the bombshell January 6 hearing testimony of former top Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, whose jaw-dropping revelations included an altercation between Trump and members of his protective detail.
After the news that Secret Service text messages from Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, 2021, had been deleted by the agency, Ainsley recently reported that 24 phones were confiscated by Secret Service and turned over to investigators.
Now, in another exclusive, Ainsley reports that the Jan. 6 Committee has received a massive trove of messages — other than texts — from Secret Service:
The Secret Service has handed congressional investigators more than 1 million electronic communications sent by agents in the lead-up to and during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
While the communications do not include text messages, they do include emails and other electronic messages, according to a Secret Service spokesperson.
The communications may shed light on lingering questions, including contact agents may have had with rioters, their efforts to protect then-Vice President Mike Pence and what occurred inside then-President Donald Trump’s car when Trump allegedly ordered Secret Service agents to take him to the Capitol.
“We have and continue to fully cooperate with the Jan. 6 select committee. While no additional text messages were recovered, we have provided a significant level of details from emails, radio transmissions, Microsoft Teams chat messages and exhibits that address aspects of planning, operations and communications surrounding Jan. 6,” said Secret Service spokesperson Special Agent Steve Kopek.
It was previously unknown that the total number of communications provided to congressional investigators surpassed 1 million.
The January 6 Committee is set to hold what purports to be their final hearing on Thursday afternoon at 12:45.
