Watchdog directs Secret Service to stop internal investigation into deleted texts
CBSN
The Department of Homeland Security inspector general has directed the U.S. Secret Service to halt its internal investigation into a cache of apparently deleted text messages sent on Jan. 6, 2021, the Secret Service confirmed Thursday to CBS News.
In a letter sent Wednesday night, DHS deputy inspector general Gladys Ayala informed U.S. Secret Service Director James Murray that the agency should stop investigating the matter because it could impede the inspector general's own probe into the agency's Jan. 6 response.
"The Secret Service is in receipt of the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General's letter," Anthony Guglielmi, Chief of Communications for the United States Secret Service, told CBS News. "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."
Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.