“We expect to have them in by Tuesday,” Representative Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat from California, told ABC, without giving further details. “We need all the texts from January 5 and 6.”
“You can imagine how shocked we were when we got the letter from the Inspector General saying that he had tried to get this information and that they had in fact been removed after he asked for it,” Lofgren said.
“We want to make sure we understand the bottom line, like where are these text messages? Can they be recovered? And we’ve subpoenaed them because they’re legal documents that we need to see before the committee,” she added. . .
The letter, originally sent by the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security to the Homeland Security Committees of the House and Senate, states that the text messages were deleted from the system as part of a program to replace them. of devices after the watchdog asked the agency for data. to its electronic communications.
While the letter doesn’t say whether the DHS watchdog believes these text messages were deleted intentionally or for nefarious reasons, the incident adds to growing questions about the Secret Service’s response to the January 6 attack on the United States Capitol.
The Jan. 6 committee will hold its next hearing on Thursday at 8 p.m. ET. The hearing is expected to focus on Trump’s response — or lack thereof — as rioters breached the Capitol’s walls, forcing lawmakers to flee their rooms.
This story and headline have been updated with additional comments.
Jamie Gangel, Zachary Cohen, Ryan Nobles, Jeremy Herb and Devan Cole of DailyExpertNews contributed to this report.