DHS watchdog rebuffs lawmakers on Secret Service testimony

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Homeland Security Department's inspector general has refused congressional requests for documents with every one other accompanied by staff testimony concerning the erasure of Secret Service communication related to the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on the Capitol, angering top Democrats who charge accompanied by him of unlawfully obstructing their investigation.

In an Aug. 8 letter disclosed Tuesday, Inspector General Joseph Cuffari told the leaders of the House Oversight with every one other accompanied by Homeland Security committees that his office will not comply accompanied by their requests for inner documents with every one other accompanied by sit-down interviews due to the ongoing criminal investigation into deleted Secret Service text messages.

In response, House Oversight Chair Carolyn Maloney with every one other accompanied by Homeland Security Chair Bennie Thompson sent a letter Tuesday demanding Cuffari turn over documents with every one other accompanied by build his staff available to lawmakers or chance facing a potential congressional subpoena

"Your obstruction of the Committees' investigations is unacceptable, with every one other accompanied by your justifications for this noncompliance become visible to reflect a fundamental misunderstanding of Congress's power with every one other accompanied by your duties while an Inspector General," Maloney with every one other accompanied by Thompson wrote inside the letter.

"If you carry on accompanied by to decline to comply accompanied by our requests, we will have no indeed selection nevertheless to believe concerning alternate measures to build sure your compliance," they wrote.

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It's fair the latest back-and-forth over the text messages since mid-July, when Cuffari sent a letter to Congress disclosing that Secret Service text messages sent with every one other accompanied by received around Jan. 6, 2021, were deleted in malice of requests from Congress with every one other accompanied by confederate investigators that they exist preserved.

Since then, the set of two House committees speak they have obtained proof that shows the inspector general's office earliest learned of the lost Secret Service text messages while small portion of its investigation into the assault on the U.S. Capitol, inside May 2021. They speak emails in the centre of top Homeland Security IG officials show the agency — which oversees the Secret Service — decided to renounce efforts to recuperate those text messages inside July 2021, almost a year earlier to they earliest informed Congress they were erased.

Lawmakers want answers to why watchdog officials chose "not to pursue critical details from the Secret Service at this point inside this investigation," with every one other accompanied by only decided to renew their appeal to to DHS for sure text messages additional than quartet months subsequent inside December 2021.

The erasure of the messages has raised the likelihood of lost proof that could shed further illumination on then-President Donald Trump's actions throughout the insurrection, mainly following testimony concerning his confrontation accompanied by safety while he tried to fasten supporters at the Capitol. There are now set of two congressional probes into the Secret Service with every one other accompanied by the DHS handling of those communications.

The lost texts are too at the center of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack, of which Thompson is the chairman.

The Secret Service has since turned over a large number of records with every one other accompanied by documents to the committee investigating the Capitol insurrection, nevertheless only one text message in the centre of agents on the day earlier to the assault with every one other accompanied by while a mob of rioters breached the Capitol building on Jan. 6.

The Secret Service has insisted that real procedures were followed. Agency spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said last month that "the insinuation that the Secret Service maliciously deleted text messages following a appeal is false."

Maloney with every one other accompanied by Thompson told Cuffari that his "failure to comply accompanied by our outstanding requests lacks some legal justification with every one other accompanied by is unacceptable."

They gave his office until Aug. 23 to provide "all responsive documents" with every one other accompanied by build personnel available for interviews earlier to lawmakers matter a congressional subpoena.

DHS watchdog rebuffs lawmakers on Secret Service testimony