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U.S. NEWS Wednesday 17 august 2022
DHS watchdog rebuffs lawmakers on Secret Service testimony

By FARNOUSH AMIRI agents on the day before
WASHINGTON (AP) — The the attack and as a mob of
Homeland Security Depart- rioters breached the Capi-
ment's inspector general tol building on Jan. 6.
has refused congressional The Secret Service has insist-
requests for documents ed that proper procedures
and staff testimony about were followed. Agency
the erasure of Secret Ser- spokesman Anthony Gug-
vice communication re- lielmi said last month that
lated to the Jan. 6, 2021 "the insinuation that the
attack on the Capitol, an- Secret Service maliciously
gering top Democrats who deleted text messages fol-
accuse him of unlawfully lowing a request is false."
obstructing their investiga- Maloney and Thompson
tion. told Cuffari that his "failure
In an Aug. 8 letter disclosed to comply with our out-
Tuesday, Inspector Gen- standing requests lacks any
eral Joseph Cuffari told the legal justification and is un-
leaders of the House Over- acceptable."
sight and Homeland Se- They gave his office until
curity committees that his Members of the U.S. Secret Service Counter Assault Team walk through the Rotunda as they Aug. 23 to provide "all re-
and other federal police forces responded as violent protesters loyal to President Donald Trump
office will not comply with stormed the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021. sponsive documents" and
their requests for internal Associated Press make personnel available
documents and sit-down for interviews before law-
interviews due to the ongo- text messages as part of documents to the commit- tol insurrection, but only makers issue a congressio-
ing criminal investigation its investigation into the at- tee investigating the Capi- one text message between nal subpoena.q
into deleted Secret Service tack on the U.S. Capitol, in
text messages. May 2021. They say emails
In response, House Over- between top Homeland
sight Chair Carolyn Malo- Security IG officials show
ney and Homeland Secu- the agency — which over-
rity Chair Bennie Thompson sees the Secret Service
sent a letter Tuesday de- — decided to abandon
manding Cuffari turn over efforts to recover those
documents and make his text messages in July 2021,
staff available to lawmak- nearly a year before they
ers or risk facing a potential first informed Congress they
congressional subpoena were erased.
"Your obstruction of the Lawmakers want answers
Committees' investigations to why watchdog officials
is unacceptable, and your chose "not to pursue criti-
justifications for this non- cal information from the Se-
compliance appear to re- cret Service at this point in
flect a fundamental misun- this investigation," and only
derstanding of Congress's decided to renew their re-
authority and your duties as quest to to DHS for certain
an Inspector General," Ma- text messages more than
loney and Thompson wrote four months later in De-
in the letter. cember 2021.
"If you continue to refuse to The erasure of the messag-
comply with our requests, es has raised the prospect
we will have no choice but of lost evidence that could
to consider alternate mea- shed further light on then-
sures to ensure your compli- President Donald Trump's
ance," they wrote. actions during the insurrec-
It's just the latest back-and- tion, particularly after tes-
forth over the text mes- timony about his confron-
sages since mid-July, when tation with security as he
Cuffari sent a letter to Con- tried to join supporters at
gress disclosing that Secret the Capitol. There are now
Service text messages sent two congressional probes
and received around Jan. into the Secret Service and
6, 2021, were deleted de- the DHS handling of those
spite requests from Con- communications.
gress and federal investiga- The missing texts are also
tors that they be preserved. at the center of the House
Since then, the two House committee investigating
committees say they have the Jan. 6 attack, of which
obtained evidence that Thompson is the chairman.
shows the inspector gen- The Secret Service has
eral's office first learned of since turned over a large
the missing Secret Service number of records and