‘PURGED’: Washinton Post Reports Subpoenaed Secret Service Texts Are ‘Gone,’ National Archives Investigating if Law Broken
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The Washington Post’s Carol Leonnig reported on Tuesday that the Secret Service has determined it no longer has any text messages relevant to the Jan. 6 House investigation as all texts were permanently “purged,” according to a senior source.
Leonnig added in her report that the National Archives is looking into whether or not “the potential unauthorized deletion” violated U.S. law.
The Secret Service and several of its key agents surrounding former President Donald Trump on Jan. 6, 2021 “have been embroiled in the Jan. 6 investigation because of their role shadowing and planning President Donald Trump’s movements that day,” explained Leonnig.
Trump’s desire to go to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6th and the Secret Service stopping him, even physically, became a key moment during one of the Jan. 6 hearings last month.
The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol subpoenaed the Secret Service’s phone, after-action reports, and other records surrounding Jan. 6, 2021 last Friday.
“The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General upended the committee’s investigation last week claiming the Secret Service had erased texts from around Jan. 5 and 6 after his office had requested them as part of his own investigation,” noted Leonnig.
Her latest report seems to indicate that those texts and records will never be seen by investigators and whoever destroyed them will likely face prosecution.
PURGED — Here’s the news. Those @SecretService texts are gone, gone, gone . Agency scoured records and said it found nothing new to give Congress . National Archives now investigating if USSS broke the law https://t.co/ROMnhjXSf5
— Carol Leonnig (@CarolLeonnig) July 19, 2022
