The Homeland Security Department’s watchdog has opened an investigation into the loss of Secret Service text messages from the days surrounding the attack on the U.S. Capitol last year.
The Inspector General of Homeland Security is conducting the probe and has instructed the Secret Service to stop its own internal investigation, according to a person familiar with the situation who asked not to be identified.
If investigators find evidence a crime was committed, the matter is typically referred to the Justice Department for prosecution.
Secret Service Chief of Communications Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement that it has received the Inspector General’s letter on the topic and has informed the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on the Capitol.
The Homeland Security probe was earlier reported by NBC.
The committee has subpoenaed the texts for clues to what happened that day, including reports of then-President Donald Trump being blocked by agents from accompanying his supporters to the Capitol. The panel plans to hold a prime-time hearing, its last in a recent series, Thursday night.
The texts could provide insight into that episode as well as security concerns surrounding then-Vice President Mike Pence, who had gone to the Capitol to preside over the Electoral College certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.
The Secret Service, Guglielmi said, “will conduct a thorough legal review to ensure we are fully cooperative with all oversight efforts and that they do not conflict with each other.”
The agency has denied wrongdoing and said some data was lost when it reset its mobile phones to factory settings in January 2021, before the Inspector General’s inspection began the next month.
On Tuesday, the keeper of federal records asked the Secret Service to determine whether any text messages by agents around the time of the attack were improperly deleted. The National Archives and Records Administration said in a letter to the agency that it must submit a report within 30 days documenting what occurred.
