CNN previously reported that the US Secret Service deleted text messages from January 5 and 6, 2021. The text messages in question may have been deleted when the agency conducted a phone data transfer that began on January 27, 2021. The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general last year requested the text files of 24 people in the Secret Service who participated in the Jan. 6 incident, but only one text had been produced. After the matter went public this month, the inspector general launched a criminal investigation into the matter, and lawmakers demanded answers from the Secret Service to go back and find out what happened to the texts that may have been deleted. According to a letter sent by the Secret Service to the House select committee investigating the insurgency, which also requested messages from the agency around the day of the attack, the inspector general requested records from 24 personnel in June 2021 — more than two months after the migration is completed. Members of the House Select Committee emphasized their belief that the agency should have done more to preserve records before immigration, citing a January 16, 2021 letter from congressional committees to several agencies, including the FBI and the Department of the Interior Security Intelligence and Analysis, instructing them to preserve records related to January 6. The agency also came under fire for an alleged incident between a Secret Service agent and then-President Donald Trump on Jan. 6, 2021, and the role of Tony Ornato, who was acting as a White House detail at the time. Trump’s deputy chief of staff for business. Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide, testified before a House select committee last month that Ornato, now the agency’s assistant director of training, told her that Trump was furious when he found out about his chief. Bobby Engel wouldn’t take him to the US Capitol. Instead, they returned to the White House after Trump’s speech at the Ellipse that preceded the riot on Capitol Hill. “As I have shared with you recently, this is a unique and challenging time for our agency,” Murray wrote in concluding his message. “Now, as always, our top priorities are the success of our mission, the well-being of our people, and our collective and individual responsibility to serve our country and our fellow citizens in a manner that is always Trustworthy and Trustworthy.” He continued, “I assure you that, during this short transition period, I remain committed to pursuing each of these goals to the fullest.” Murray has spent 27 years with the Secret Service and was promoted to director in April 2019. This story has been updated with additional information on Thursday.
