.png){kind=icon}
Administrator- Joined
- May 11, 2013
- Posts
- 25,175
- Reaction score
- 13,688
- Points
- 2,870
(The Guardian) Watchdog launches criminal investigation into missing Secret Service texts around January 6 riot - reports
The inspector general at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees the Secret Service, has embarked on a criminal investigation into the matter of agents’ text messages relating to January 6, 2021, having been erased, according to several media reports.
The watchdog also has told the Secret Service to pause its own internal investigation into the matter, during what the DHS now refers to as a separate and “ongoing criminal investigation”, according to a CNN report.
CNN further reported on a letter from DHS deputy inspector general Gladys Ayala to Secret Service director James Murray sent yesterday, quoting it as saying: This is to notify you that the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General has an ongoing investigation into the facts and circumstances surrounding the collection and preservation of evidence by the United States Secret Service as it relates to the events of January 6, 2021.”
And the Washington Post reported that Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi has confirmed the letter and has informed the House January 6 panel. -- “We have informed the January 6th Select Committee of the Inspector General’s request and 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,” Guglielmi said in a statement, the Post reported.
The developments mark the latest escalation of the scandal after the watchdog notified Congress the DHS had sought the texts only to be told they no longer existed.
The circumstances surrounding the erasure of the Secret Service texts have become central for the January 6 committee as it investigates how agents planned to move Donald Trump and Mike Pence as the violence unfolded.
The inspector general at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees the Secret Service, has embarked on a criminal investigation into the matter of agents’ text messages relating to January 6, 2021, having been erased, according to several media reports.
The watchdog also has told the Secret Service to pause its own internal investigation into the matter, during what the DHS now refers to as a separate and “ongoing criminal investigation”, according to a CNN report.
CNN further reported on a letter from DHS deputy inspector general Gladys Ayala to Secret Service director James Murray sent yesterday, quoting it as saying: This is to notify you that the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General has an ongoing investigation into the facts and circumstances surrounding the collection and preservation of evidence by the United States Secret Service as it relates to the events of January 6, 2021.”
And the Washington Post reported that Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi has confirmed the letter and has informed the House January 6 panel. -- “We have informed the January 6th Select Committee of the Inspector General’s request and 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,” Guglielmi said in a statement, the Post reported.
The developments mark the latest escalation of the scandal after the watchdog notified Congress the DHS had sought the texts only to be told they no longer existed.
The circumstances surrounding the erasure of the Secret Service texts have become central for the January 6 committee as it investigates how agents planned to move Donald Trump and Mike Pence as the violence unfolded.
