Jan. 6 panel wants deleted Secret Service texts by Tuesday

The House select committee investigating last year’s Capitol riot hopes to receive deleted text messages sent by Secret Service agents on Jan. 5 and 6, 2021, later this week in order to “get the full picture” of what happened on those days, a member of the panel said Sunday.

“We expect to get them by this Tuesday,” Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) told ABC News’ “This Week.”

The committee subpoenaed the agency for the records on Friday after the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general claimed the messages were erased “as part of a device-replacement program.”

“We need all the texts from the 5th and the 6th of January,” Lofgren said “I was shocked to hear that they didn’t back up their data before they reset their iPhones. That’s crazy. I don’t know why that would be. But we need to get this information to get the full picture.”

The DHS watchdog also claimed in a letter to lawmakers that department personnel had been told any records meant for the IG would have to first be reviewed by in-house lawyers.

“You can imagine how shocked we were to get the letter from the inspector general saying that he had been trying to get this information and that they had, in fact, been deleted after he’d asked for them,” said Lofgren, who added that the panel had been briefed about the matter.

In response, a Secret Service spokesman said last week that the texts had been requested in February 2021, a month after the data migration began, and that none of the messages had been lost in the process.

“And then there was a statement made by the spokesperson for the department saying that it wasn’t true, it wasn’t fair, and that they, in fact, had pertinent texts — and we go, ‘Fine, if you have them, we need them,’” Lofgren said.​

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), one of two Republicans on the panel, was skeptical of the claim that the snafu was the accidental byproduct of a tech upgrade. 

“In the very least, it is quite crazy that the Secret Service would actually end up deleting anything related to one of the more infamous days in American history, particularly when it comes to the role of the Secret Service,” he said on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.”

Kinzinger added that the panel, which will hold its next hearing in primetime Thursday, has continued to receive information and evidence as part of its investigation into the riot and has “filled in the blanks” about then-President Donald Trump’s movements and behavior as a mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol. 

​”This is going to open people’s eyes in a big way​,” he said about Thursday’s hearing.​

“​The reality is — I will give you this preview — the president didn’t do very much but gleefully watch television during this time frame. We’re going to present a lot more than that​,” Kinzinger added. 

Lofgren wouldn’t elaborate about the evidence the committee will show this week.

“I’m going to let the hearings speak for itself but we hope to go through, minute by minute what happened, what didn’t happen on that day, and people can make their own judgment,” she said. 

Lofgren also suggested that Thursday’s committee hearing might not be the last.

“So you could have another series of hearings?” host Martha Raddatz asked.

“I’m not suggesting we will or won’t,” Lofgren said.​

“We will have a report this fall. And whether we have a public unveiling of that, that’s yet to be decided,” she added. “But we will have a summation, an interim report, and then a final report later this year.”