The Secret Service is accused of deleting an undetermined number of text messages covering the period of January 5-6, 2021, after the Homeland Security Inspector General ordered the agency to preserve all texts, at least that’s what happened according to the far left site The Intercept.
THE SECRET SERVICE erased text messages from January 5 and January 6, 2021, according to a letter given to the January 6 committee and reviewed by The Intercept. Originaly, the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspection General sent the letter to both the House and Senate homeland safety committees. Though the Secret Service maintains that the text messages were lost as a result of a “device-replacement program,” the letter says the erasure took place shortly after oversight officials requested the agency’s electronic communications.
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But, the Office of Inspector General letter suggests, key evidence in the form of the Secret Service’s electronic communications may never see the light of day. The Department of Homeland Security — the Secret Service’s parent agency — is subject to oversight from the DHS Office of Inspector General, which had requested records of electronic communications from the Secret Service between January 5 and January 6, 2021, before being informed that they had been erased. From the letter, it is not clear whether all the messages were removed or only a few. Department officials have also pushed back on the oversight office’s records request by arguing that the records must first undergo review by DHS attorneys, which has delayed the process and left unclear if the Secret Service records would ever be produced, according to the letter.
Here’s how The New York Times presents the story. The Intercept’s “scoop.”
In a letter obtained by The New York Times, the inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security, the parent agency of the Secret Service, reported that many of the agents’ texts were erased as part of a device replacement program even after the inspector general had requested them as part of his inquiry into the events of Jan. 6.
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In a statement, the Secret Service disputed parts of the inspector general’s findings, saying that it “lost” data on “some phones” as part of a preplanned three-month “system migration” in January 2021, but maintaining that no texts pertinent to the inquiry “had been lost in the migration.”
Why is this happening and what are the implications? That’s what you always have to ask when something like this sails in from left field.
In late June, former White House aide and Trump loyalist Cassidy Hutchinson gave an orgasmic tremor to anti-Trumpers of all persuasions when she testified that President Trump had fought a Secret Service agent for control of the steering wheel of the presidential limousine (January 6th ‘Emergency’ Hearing Delivers Laughably Absurd ‘Bombshells’) and threw food against the wall and all manner of other ridiculous stuff. Statements from Secret Service agents quickly demolished Hutchinson’s perjurious testimony…and a diagram of the limo showing that the driver’s compartment can’t be reached from the passenger’s compartment (J6 Committee Just Kneecapped Themselves Over Evidence in Cassidy Hutchinson’s Testimony). Since then, stories have hinted that Hutchinson might be saying what she was told to say because she didn’t have the resources to defend herself (Explosive Emails Help to Further Cast Doubt on Cassidy Hutchinson’s Testimony).
The stories T has posted contain some serious flawsHe InterceptThe New York Times. Why are there missing texts messages only now 18 months later than it was? Why didn’t the Homeland Security IG throw a flag when they first discovered the discrepancy instead of waiting to finish their report? Are the messages missing from either Vice President Pence or President Trump’s Protective Detail? The Mueller team has been given access to phones from Secret Service. What date and time did the IG ask for the phones’ preservation?
The Democrats may spin any story of conspiracy by the Secret Service to protect Donald Trump if there aren’t text messages. It does many things. This makes it questionable that agents have given contradictory testimony to Hutchinson if such a conspiracy is true. This is an important step in rehabilitating her credibility as a witness. The leftist media also seems to have targeted Anthony Ornato, the Secret Service’s assistant director for training for destruction. Ornato, a Secret Service agent who President Trump made deputy White House chief-of-staff, was also a Secret Service agent. Ornato’s Secret Service connection and his role in the White House form a plausible nexus between the events of January 6 and the “missing” text messages.
Right now, we have three unconnected events that the Democrats and media are trying to connect: January 6, replacement phones for the Secret Service, and Hutchinson’s testimony. For obvious reasons, they deliberately haven’t connected them. However, they urge you to.
Personally, I don’t think any Secret Service employee would violate an order from the IG to preserve evidence, no matter how loyal they might be to President Trump. They knew he was leaving office and by January 7, knew that a sh**storm was brewing. I can’t imagine a situation where management in the Secret Service would have permitted the destruction of phones that might contain evidence of wrongdoing. The truth is that this, as with all other items produced by the Jan 6 committee, does not address the problem. The issue is creating the perception of criminality needed to keep President Trump from running in 2024 and using the “attack on democracy” as a theme in 2022.
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