(RightIsRight.co) – The United States Secret Service has seized the cellphones of 24 agents who responded to the January 6, 2021, protest at the United States Capitol Complex in Washington, DC, a report based on two inside sources has revealed.
The agency has handed over the confiscated agents’ cell phones to the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General.
The transfer occurred at the end of July, NBC News reported, as cited by Newsmax.
The Office of the DHS Inspector General, Joseph Cuffari, has started a criminal investigation into missing text messages in the Secret Service from January 6, 2021.
However, for the time being, it remains unclear whether any information has been extracted by the confiscated cell phones.
Even though some agents were indignant over the swift confiscation without their agreement, the phones in question belong to the Secret Service.
Back in July, Cuffari informed Congress that his office had been unable to extract text messages from Secret Service agents’ cell phones.
The Secret Service has alleged that the text messages sought by the DHS were deleted as a result of a previously planned upgrade that restored the devices’ factory settings.
The text messages sent by Secret Service agents on January 5 and 6, 2021, have attracted the investigators’ interest since June.
Back then, Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide, claimed before the January 6 committee she had heard that then President Donald Trump lunged toward one agent who refused to drive him to the Capital during the protest rally in his support. Trump has denied Hutchinson’s allegations as ludicrous.
A report by The Hill has revealed that the January 6 House committee has gotten its hands on documents and other records from the Secret Service. Still, it has managed to obtain only a single text message from 24 agents who participated in the 1/6 response.
“The work to investigative the travesty of the January 6 Insurrection is extremely important to us and aligns with the mission of the Secret Service which is to safeguard our nation’s highest government leaders,” the Secret Service said in a statement.
“We have and will continue to cooperate fully with all of the oversight efforts, and we have provided everything that has been requested as part of these inquiries,” the agency added after the House committee recently made it clear it was going to ask it for more information.
Meanwhile, a letter by anonymous staff in Cuffari’s office has been leaked to the public by the Project on Government Oversight.
It accused Cuffari of “significantly editing reports to remove key findings” and “interfering with staff efforts to gather information necessary to perform independent oversight.”
The Secret Service reportedly confiscated cellphones of 24 agents involved in the agency's response to the Jan. 6 protest at the Capitol. https://t.co/P18Pz3Ff8C
— Newsmax (@newsmax) September 27, 2022
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