Secret Service Agents Delete Text Messages

The saga of January 6th, 2021 is very far from over and almost every day brings fresh revelations, with more questions raised than answered. This week has been no different with the news that text messages on Secret Service issued phones from around the crucial date have gone missing. The issue promises to be a thorny one as government agency is pitted against agency to find out the exact sequence of events on the day that shocked American citizens and viewers around the world.

Secret Service Ordered to Cease Internal Investigation

Although no accusations have been formally made the possible implications may well prove to be seismic. The events of January 6th remain one of the highest, if not arguably the most high profile national event since the tragedy of 9/11. While the Secret Service was initially conducting its own internal investigation, the overseeing body now is the congressional Select Committee. Congress requested copies of all data held on the phones of 24 Secret Service members in total, all of whom were assigned to high-level security details on the day.The agents in question include those who were assigned to Vice President Mike Pence and former President Trump himself among other key individuals.

That text messages are missing from phones in the possession of operatives at this level has raised some very powerful eyebrows in Washington, to say the least. As the inquiry into events surrounding the Capitol riot continues the loss of this data represents a real information gap. The investigators' ability to understand and prove what was happening during the chaotic scenes may well be hamstrung as a result.Given the controversial testimony about Trump's alleged conflict with his security detail as events unfolded, messages sent and received on January 6th could well settle many questions raised during the last weeks.

Data Migration Issues

This migration began on January 27th a full 21 days, after the Capitol invasion. Despite the extreme events which had taken only three weeks earlier, individual agents were allegedly instructed to save or delete messages at their own discretion. The Secret Service considers all of this to be above board and standard procedure.The Select Committee conducting the investigation and the DHS however, are not entirely convinced. They made a formal request to receive all text messages and other data pertaining to the events of January 6th in June of 2021. This date puts the request two months after the full completion of the migration.

If the DHS sees this as a good reason to dismiss any doubts regarding its behavior, the Select Committee does not agree. In their view, every text should have been backed up before the migration process to guarantee their availability if and when needed for any public purpose. In principle, the Secret Service should agree as it did inform all of its agents to back up their phones before the migration. On the other hand, this was left up to the individual agents involved. The finger pointing may in time be turned away from the department itself in favor of singling out the specific agents concerned.

Presidential Temper Tantrum
 

Although not the only issue, Trump's alleged temper tantrum and conflict with his personal security detail on the 6th are a subject of intense interest. While it surprises no one that US Presidents can allow their emotions to overcome them in moments of intense stress, the allegations on this occasion may carry legal implications. Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson alleges that the former President was enraged that the Secret Service refused to allow him accompany the protesters to the Capitol. He became so frustrated that he struggled to take control of the vehicle away from his Secret Service driver and turn it around. If this is true it could implicate the President as being more than an innocent bystander and his accusers will consider him to have been an instigator of the riot. This would be the best of all possible outcomes for those determined to prevent the controversial figure from ever running for office again.

While Ms. Hutchinson was certainly in a position to observe the President's behavior, the problem is that two Secret Service agents dispute her version of events and refute all allegations of violent behavior on the part of former President Trump. While text messages may not conclusively prove what happened behind the tinted windows of the presidential vehicle that day, they may well have shed some light and served to sway opinions one way or the other. Although the Select Committee and DHS are calling for the messages to be released, at this point, given that the Secret Service claims they have already been deleted, it seems highly unlikely that they will ever see the light of day. What happens to the individual agents involved remains to be seen.

Whistle Blowers

A further complicating factor involves not one but two whistleblowers from within the office of the DHS Inspector General. According to these insiders, the DHS itself was at the very least negligent when it failed to report to Congress the deletion of all texts around the date of January 6th, 2021. The DHS, it is alleged, knew full well that this data was lost but did not pass on this information to Congress in a timely fashion. In fact, the whistleblowers claim is that they did not volunteer the information at all. Both insiders were working for Inspector General Joseph Cuffari at the time the alleged events occurred. Joseph Cuffari was a Trump appointee and has been involved in Republic Party politics for many years.