“We expect to get them by this Tuesday,” Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat from California, told ABC, without providing further details. “We need all the texts from the 5th and the 6th of January.”
“You can imagine how shocked we were to get the letter from the inspector general saying that he had been trying to get this information and that they had, in fact, been deleted after he’d asked for them,” Lofgren said.
“We want to make sure that we understand the bottom line, like, where are these text messages? Can they be recovered? And we’ve subpoenaed them because they’re legal records that we need to see for the committee,” she added.
The letter, which was originally sent to the House and Senate Homeland Security Committees by the Department of Homeland Security inspector general, says the text messages were erased from the system as part of a device-replacement program after the watchdog asked the agency for records related to its electronic communications.
While the letter does not say whether the DHS watchdog believes these text messages were erased intentionally or for a nefarious reason, the incident adds to growing questions about the Secret Service’s response to the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.
The January 6 committee is set to 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 walls and forced lawmakers to flee their chambers.
This story and headline have been updated with additional reaction.
CNN’s Jamie Gangel, Zachary Cohen, Ryan Nobles, Jeremy Herb and Devan Cole contributed to this report.
Quoted from Various Sources
Published for: Mr Blow Up