DHS insp gen told 6 panel he went to Mayorkas about Secret Service cooperation

Source: CNN | July 15, 2022 | Zachary Cohen, Annie Grayer, Ryan Nobles, Jamie Gangel and Whitney Wild

First on CNN: DHS inspector general told Jan. 6 panel he went to Mayorkas about Secret Service cooperation

(CNN) – The Department of Homeland Security inspector general on Friday briefed all nine members of the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, US Capitol attack about the Secret Service erasing text messages from the day of the riot and the day before.

The inspector general, Joseph Cuffari, met with the committee behind closed doors two days after sending a letter to lawmakers informing them that the text messages were erased after the watchdog agency asked for records related to its electronic communications as part of its ongoing investigation around the Capitol attack.

The committee now plans to reach out to Secret Service officials to ask about the erasure of text messages from the day of the US Capitol attack and the day before, including the agency’s process for cleaning out files to see if that policy was followed, the committee Chair Bennie Thompson told CNN.

January 6 committee members expressed concern after the meeting about the different version of events between the inspector general and Secret Service and stressed they wanted to hear from the agency itself.

Cuffari told the committee that the Secret Service did not conduct its own after-action review regarding January 6 and chose to rely on the inspector general investigation, according to a source familiar with the briefing. The inspector general told the committee that the Secret Service has not been fully cooperative with his probe.

Cuffari’s description left the impression that the Secret Service had been “footdragging,” the source said. The inspector general told the committee they were not getting full access to personnel and records.

Cuffari said he brought the issue to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas more than once and was told to keep trying to get the information. Ultimately, Cuffari decided to go to Congress because he could not get anywhere within DHS with his concerns. Separately, a law enforcement official told CNN about Cuffari going to Mayorkas.

DHS said in a statement that it “has ensured and will continue to ensure that both the DHS Office of the Inspector General (OIG) and the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol have the information they have requested.”

Thompson told CNN the IG said during their meeting that the Secret Service has not been fully cooperative.

“Well, they have not been fully cooperating,” the Mississippi Democrat said, adding: “We’ve had limited engagement with Secret Service. We’ll follow up with some additional engagement now that we’ve met with the IG.”

Thompson said that the committee will work “to try to ascertain if those texts can be resurrected.”

The congressman previously told CNN after the meeting that the committee needs to interview Secret Service officials to get their take on what happened with the text messages that got deleted on January 5 and 6, 2021.

“Now that we have the IG’s view of what has happened. We now need to talk to the Secret Service. And our expectation is to reach out to them directly,” Thompson said. “One of the things we have to make sure is that what Secret Service is saying and what the IG is saying, that those two issues are in fact one and the same. And so now that we have it, we’ll ask for the physical information. And we’ll make a decision ourselves.”

……..

Viewing 4 posts - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
  • Discussion
  • Consistent #54405

    Consistent #54406

    Consistent #54407

    Consistent #54409

Viewing 4 posts - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

You must be logged in to reply to this topic.