Jan. 6 committee meets with DHS watchdog over erased Secret Service texts
CBSN
The House select Jan. 6 committee met Friday morning with DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari about erased Secret Service text messages from Jan. 5 and 6, 2021, multiple members of the panel told CBS News.
Cuffari sent a letter to the House and Senate Homeland Security Committees earlier this week saying that the Secret Service had wiped text messages from those two days as part of a "device-replacement program" shortly after the inspector general's office requested the records.
He also told Congress in the letter that DHS personnel "repeatedly told OIG inspectors that they were not permitted to provide records directly to OIG and that such records had to first undergo review by DHS attorneys." The review "led to weeks-long delays in OIG obtaining records and created confusion over whether all records had been produced."
