Earlier this month, Secret Service officials told congressional committees that DHS Inspector General Joseph Kufari, the department’s independent monitor, knew texts were deleted in December 2021. But sources tell CNN that the Secret Service notified Kufari’s office of the missing text messages in May 2021, seven months early.
The source added that key Secret Service personnel did not realize the data was lost forever until the data migration was complete and mistakenly believed the data was backed up. In July 2021, inspector general investigators told DHS they were no longer looking into Secret Service text messages, according to two sources. Cuffari’s office then resumed its investigation in December 2021.
The Washington Post first reported the missing texts from Wolff and Cuccinelli, who were lost when their government phones were “reset” when they left their jobs in January 2021 in preparation for the new Biden administration, according to the Post. The missing messages exploded into the public domain earlier this month when Kufari sent a letter to congressional committees saying the Secret Service texts had been deleted, setting off a frantic series of events that have now sparked a criminal investigation and directed requests for answers from Congress. Kufari’s letter came after Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified before the committee on Jan. 6 about an angry confrontation between former President Donald Trump and part of his Secret Service on Jan. 6, 2021.
Both the commission and Kufari are interested in the texts because they could shed light on the Secret Service’s response on January 6.
Conflicting requests for information
Amid heightened scrutiny, the Secret Service has limited its cooperation with the commission since Jan. 6 related to the missing texts, two sources told CNN. Secret Service lawyers, along with DHS lawyers, are working to determine how to respond to and prioritize three conflicting requests for information about missing records from the House Select Committee, the National Archives and the DHS inspector general.
The office told the committee last week by phone of the need to suspend cooperation ahead of the panel’s July 21 primetime hearing, one of the sources said. The commission issued a subpoena on July 15 to the office for text messages and other records around January 6.
On July 20, Cuffari’s office, which operates independently of DHS, told the agency to suspend its investigation into the missing records, saying it could interfere with the inspector general’s own investigation, which it said was an “ongoing criminal investigation.”
In addition to the committee’s Jan. 6 subpoena, the National Archives separately asked the Secret Service to turn over relevant records and explain what may have happened to any deleted text messages.
Sources familiar with the situation said they were unsure how long it would take Secret Service lawyers to decide whether to share records with the committee — and whether it would be decided within days or weeks.
A source told CNN that the Secret Service continues to provide records from older requests to the committee, but acknowledged that the agency has stopped any new investigative work to find the contents of text messages that were lost.
In a statement to CNN, a Secret Service spokesman said the agency “will continue its unwavering cooperation with the Special Commission and other investigations.”
Reps. Zoe Lofgren of California and Elaine Luria of Virginia, who have served on the committee since Jan. 6, have said publicly that the Secret Service turned over documents this week. And the committee’s chairman, Mississippi Democratic Rep. Benny Thompson, said Thursday that the group received “a few hundred thousand” of the exhibit from the Secret Service two days ago. Thompson said the panel is still reviewing the material and does not know if it contains new text messages.
When Kufari met with the committee two weeks ago, Thompson said, he did not tell the committee that the potential deletion of Secret Service text messages from Jan. 5 and 6, 2021, was the subject of a criminal investigation.
Thompson said he’s still waiting to see how the criminal investigation affects the information the commission may receive, but he doesn’t believe the criminal investigation affects the commission’s investigation at this point.
“My understanding of the process is that if you’re involved in something criminal, that certain information you can’t share,” Thompson said. “As far as where the breaks are in terms of the criminal investigation, I guess we’ll have to see at some point.”
Neither DHS nor the DHS Office of Inspector General responded to a request for comment.
Congress wants a recusal
The potential impasse between the Secret Service and the panel since Jan. 6 comes after Thompson called on Kufari to recuse himself from the investigation into the possible deletion of text messages.
Thompson and House Oversight Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney sent a letter to Kufari on Tuesday saying his failure to inform Congress that the Secret Service had not provided the records “casts serious doubt on his independence and his ability to conduct effectively such an important investigation’.
Asked Thursday if Cuffari misled the committee, Thompson said, “It appears that the IG is potentially conflicted with the conduct of his investigation.”
In a sign of the communication breakdown between congressional Democrats and Kufari, the House Homeland Security Committee, which Thompson also chairs, was never informed by the inspector general that he was conducting a criminal investigation into the Secret Service text messages, according to a person familiar with the matter. source with the question.
The missing reports exploded into the public domain this month when the inspector general disclosed the problem in a letter to Congress. The letter came after Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified before the committee about an angry confrontation between Trump and his Secret Service on January 6.
The timeline is taking shape
The issue of potentially missing text messages dates back to January 2021, when the Secret Service began its pre-planned migration of phone data.
On January 16, 2021, before the data migration took place, the chairs of four House committees sent a letter to DHS and other relevant agencies instructing them to preserve records related to January 6. Although the Secret Service is part of DHS, it remains unclear whether the agency received the guidance, which did not specifically mention them.
A source familiar with the investigation told CNN that the Secret Service spent about eight hours last week looking for the memo but never found it.
Nine days after the letter was sent, the Secret Service sent a reminder to employees that the data migration would wipe employees’ phones. The notice to employees dated January 25, 2021 made it clear that employees are responsible for retaining records.
The Secret Service began the data migration two days later, on January 27.
A source told CNN that the Secret Service realized too late that the data had been permanently deleted. The agency tried to retrieve lost text messages from its cell phone provider but was unable to do so, the source said.
In June 2021, Kufari requested records and texts from the 24 Secret Service agents involved in the January 6 action. CNN previously reported that Trump and Pence’s security chiefs were among the 24 individuals.
But then in July 2021, a deputy inspector general told the Department of Homeland Security that the agency was no longer looking for the Secret Service text messages, according to two sources.
Sources told CNN that the Secret Service believes the issue is over at this point. But the inspector general resumed his investigation into the text messages in December 2021, one source said.
Skepticism is growing
While Democratic committee chairs have questioned whether Kufari, who was appointed by Trump in 2019, can lead the Secret Service investigation, House lawmakers on the select committee have also raised suspicions about how the Secret Service may have allowed the messages to be deleted after Jan. 6 — noting that multiple congressional committees had requested agency records before the phone migration led to their possible deletion.
“Consider me a skeptic,” Congressman Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat on the panel, said on CBS’s “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on Monday. Raskin said he didn’t believe for a minute that the Secret Service couldn’t find the texts the agents wrote on Jan. 6.
CNN reported last week that the Secret Service has identified 10 individuals with metadata showing text messages were sent or received around Jan. 6, and the agency is trying to determine whether the content contained relevant information that should have been withheld.
The inspector general’s letter last week notifying the Secret Service of the potential criminal investigation halted those efforts.
The Secret Service suggested in its statement acknowledging the letter that it may not be able to comply with both the inspector general’s directive and the committee’s subpoena. The agency said it would “conduct a thorough legal review to ensure that we are fully cooperating with all oversight efforts and that they do not conflict with each other.”
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