JAN. 6 TEXTS FOUND TO BE DELETED

WASHINGTON — Secret Service agents deleted text messages sent and received around the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol even after an inspector general requested them as part of an investigation into the insurrection, the government watchdog has found.

The Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General, in a letter obtained by the Associated Press, said the messages on Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, 2021, were erased “as part of a devicereplacement program.” The erasure came after the watchdog office requested records of electronic communications among the agents as part of its inquiry into events surrounding the Jan. 6 attack.

Additionally, Homeland Security personnel were told they couldn’t provide records to the inspector general and any such records would first have to be reviewed by Homeland Security attorneys. “This review led to a weeks-long delay in OIG obtaining records and created confusion over whether all records had been produced,” states the letter, which was dated Wednesday and sent to leaders of the House and Senate Homeland Security committees.

Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said, “We take strong issue with these categorically false claims and I will be responding in detail shortly.”

The erasure of the messages is sure to raise new questions for the House panel investigating the Jan. 6 attack, which has taken a renewed interest in the Secret Service since the testimony of former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson about thenPresident Trump’s actions the day of the insurrection.

Hutchinson recalled being told about a confrontation between Trump and his Secret Service detail as he angrily demanded to be driven to the Capitol, where his supporters would later breach the building and assault police officers. She also recalled overhearing Trump telling security officials to remove magnetometers for his rally that day though some of his supporters were known to be armed.

That account was quickly disputed by those agents. Robert Engel, who was driving the presidential SUV, and then-White House Deputy Chief of Staff Anthony Ornato are willing to testify under oath challenging the story, a person familiar with the matter told AP.