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      Zandra Flemister, first Black woman in Secret Service, dies aged 71

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      Zandra Flemister, first Black woman in Secret Service, dies aged 71Hailed as ‘a trailblazer’, Flemister experienced widespread racism and discrimination during her tenure at the federal agencyThe first Black woman to have been hired by the US Secret Service, Zandra Flemister, has died at the age of 71, leaving behind as her legacy a rich political career, her fight with Alzheimer’s, and a lawsuit that details the widespread racism and discrimination she suffered during her tenure at the federal agency known for protecting presidents.Flemister, who died Tuesday, was “a trailblazer” and “inspired a future generation of agents,” the Secret Service’s director, Kimberly Cheatle, said in a statement about her death.She started her work at the Secret Service in 1974, four years before her transfer out to the foreign service – which in part protects Americans abroad – in 1978.During her time at the Secret Service, Flemister guarded the families of US presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.“I … wanted to be a trailblazer for other African American women,” she would say later about her Secret Service career. But it’s important to note that statement was contained in an affidavit forming part of a class-action lawsuit that saw more than 100 Black agents and former agents detail a culture of racist discrimination in the Secret Service.Microaggressions, ultimatums and hostile verbal comments against her peppered her experience at the Secret Service.A fellow agent once referred to her as a “prisoner” while they were on duty, making her feel “embarrassed and humiliated”, according to a detailed obituary of Flemister in the Washington Post.The Post recounted how her supervisor told her she would have to abandon her afro-style haircut if she wanted to be promoted. And even after Flemister followed the supervisor’s advice, she felt disrespected and as though she was put on “exhibition”.Once, a colleague put a gorilla’s picture on Flemister’s identification.Beyond her own experience, she also described witnessing anti-Black racism from her colleagues. While working with the presidents of Senegal and Grenada during their visit to the US, Flemister heard her white colleagues use the N-word in reference to the leaders of the nations, which respectively are in Africa and the Caribbean.Her career blossomed after she transferred to the foreign service. She would go on to become the supervisory consul general in Pakistan, and after that she earned selection to the senior foreign service in 2006.About then, unbeknownst to her, the Alzheimer’s with which she contended was setting in.By 2010, her symptoms were serious enough that she had to request retirement at the relatively early age of 59.Long before her retirement, Flemister fought for her rights as well as those of others in the Secret Service who had been victims of racism. A lawsuit filed in 2000 alleged racial discrimination within the agency, and she wrote that she saw it loud and clear during her time that she would not be “allowed to have a successful career in the Secret Service” because of her race.“My requests for transfers to career-enhancing squads [were] consistently denied, my credibility and competency constantly questioned, and [there was] the common use of racial epithets in my presence,” she wrote.Her bout with Alzheimer’s eventually became severe enough that it left her unable to follow through the course of the lawsuit.Flemister’s husband of 42 years, John Collinge, told the Post that she died due to a respiratory failure that was related to her Alzheimer’s disease. Survivors also include her son, Samuel Collinge.TopicsSecret ServiceUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      Secret Service took phones from 24 agents involved in January 6 response – report

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      Secret Service took phones from 24 agents involved in January 6 response – reportPhones reportedly confiscated amid criminal investigation about missing text messages from January 5 and 6 US Secret Service leaders confiscated cellphones from 24 agents involved in the response to the Capitol attack amid a criminal investigation about missing text messages from 5 and 6 January 2021, according to a new report.Citing “two sources with knowledge of the action”, NBC News said the phones were handed to Joseph Cuffari, the Department of Homeland Security inspector general, in late July or early August, shortly after Cuffari launched an investigation requested by the National Archives.Hurricane Ian barrels towards Florida as officials warn of looming catastrophe – liveRead more“One source familiar with the Secret Service decision to comply with Cuffari’s request said some agents were upset their leaders were quick to confiscate the phones without their input,” NBC reported. “But given that the phones belong to the agency … the agents had little say in the matter.”The Secret Service did not immediately comment. Cuffari’s office said it would not confirm or comment on the investigation.In July, Cuffari told Congress Secret Service text messages from 5 January 2021, the day before Trump supporters attacked the Capitol, and 6 January had been erased despite an oversight request.The resulting tussle between the Trump-appointed official and the House January 6 committee and made dramatic headlines.Investigators have since secured access to chats and emails between agents on security details for Donald Trump and Mike Pence.The committee is seeking to establish how the Secret Service moved Trump and his vice-president – and why – as the Capitol attack unfolded.Testimony has described how Trump struggled with one member of his security detail, as he was moved to the White House instead of going to the Capitol with his supporters.The committee has also been told how Pence’s detail moved him through the Capitol as rioters broke in with some chanting “Hang Mike Pence” as a gallows was erected outside.An unnamed security official said: “The members of the VP detail were starting to fear for their own lives. There was a lot of yelling. There were a lot of very personal calls over the radio … there were calls to say goodbye to family members … for whatever reason it was on the ground, the VP detail thought this was about to get very ugly.“… It sounds like we came very close to either Service having to use lethal options or worse.”In July, referring to controversy over the missing texts and friction between the House committee and Secret Service officials, the presidential historian Michael Beschloss tweeted: “For all of those … agents who seem to love and venerate Trump, look at how he did nothing to defend Mike Pence’s agents on January 6 as they called their frightened families to say goodbye forever.”The rioters were attempting to stop certification of Joe Biden’s election victory, a process overseen by the vice-president. Pence reportedly resisted Secret Service attempts to remove him from the Capitol.In their book I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J Trump’s Catastrophic Final Year, Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker of the Washington Post said Pence refused to get into a car.A Pence aide, Keith Kellogg, reportedly told Tony Ornato, the head of Trump’s detail who became deputy White House chief of staff, Pence had “a job to do” and was going to stay at the Capitol “if he has to wait there all night”.Pence ultimately presided over the certification in the small hours of 7 January.TopicsSecret ServiceUS politicsDonald TrumpnewsReuse this content More

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      Top Secret Service official at heart of January 6 Trump row steps down

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      Top Secret Service official at heart of January 6 Trump row steps downTony Ornato, who reportedly told aide Trump lunged for steering wheel as Capitol attack was starting, was key figure to committee Top US Secret Service official Tony Ornato, who has become a figure of intense interest to the congressional committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack, has retired from the agency.Ornato was thrust into the center of the January 6 furor as an eyewitness to some of the most critical incidents involving Donald Trump in the hours leading up to the deadly assault on the US Capitol.He began as head of Trump’s Secret Service detail but in an unprecedented move in December 2019 became deputy chief of staff in the White House.Biden to take on Republicans over gun control, crime and attacks on FBI – liveRead moreIn that capacity, he was drawn into the sights of the January 6 committee in its investigation of Trump’s role in inciting the Capitol insurrection. A former White House aide, Cassidy Hutchinson, in June testified publicly to the committee that Ornato had told her Trump had become “irate” when his security detail refused to drive him to the Capitol as the assault on Congress was beginning.The attack aimed to prevent the congressional certification of Trump’s defeat to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.When his Secret Service driver insisted it was not safe to go, Trump lunged for the steering wheel and then grabbed the agent’s throat, Hutchinson testified Ornato had told her. Ornato reportedly denied the account through unnamed sources.Hutchinson also revealed to the committee that Ornato had briefed top White House aides on January 6 itself that weapons were being carried among the crowd at the Capitol, including guns, knives and spears. Ornato has not denied that allegation.On Monday, he confirmed that he had retired from the Secret Service, saying in a statement that he wanted to work in the private sector. He has already been interviewed twice by the January 6 committee, though the contents of his testimony have not been made public.Among the areas of interest that the committee is likely to be pursuing is Ornato’s knowledge of how Trump’s vice-president, Mike Pence, was handled by Secret Service agents on January 6. As armed rioters were milling through the Capitol, shouting “Hang Mike Pence!”, the vice-president’s security detail tried to persuade him to evacuate the area.“I’m not getting in the car,” Pence told the lead special agent, according to Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig in their book I Alone Can Fix It.At the White House, Ornato, who as deputy chief of staff had oversight over Secret Service decisions, told Pence’s national security adviser, Keith Kellogg, that the vice-president was going to be moved to the Maryland military facility Joint Base Andrews. Had he been evacuated, Pence would no longer have been able to certify Biden’s electoral victory, and Trump’s goal of postponing his defeat would have been fulfilled.When Ornato said that the Secret Service would move Pence, Kellogg was adamant, Rucker and Leonnig reported. “You can’t do that, Tony,” Kellogg said. “Leave him where he’s at. He’s got a job to do. I know you guys too well. You’ll fly him to Alaska if you have a chance. Don’t do it.”TopicsSecret ServiceDonald TrumpUS politicsJanuary 6 hearingsnewsReuse this content More

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      Secret Service watchdog suppressed memo on January 6 texts erasure

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      Secret Service watchdog suppressed memo on January 6 texts erasureOfficials at the DHS’s office of inspector general said their attempts to inform Congress in April were thwarted Top career officials at the Department of Homeland Security’s office of inspector general tried to alert Congress in April that Secret Service texts from the time of the January 6 Capitol attack had been erased, but their efforts were nixed by its leadership, documents show.House panels: DHS officials interfered in effort to get lost Secret Service textsRead moreThe officials inside the inspector general’s office – the chief watchdog for the Secret Service – prepared a memo that detailed how the Secret Service was resisting the oversight body’s review into January 6, and delayed informing it about the lost texts.But after the memo was emailed to the DHS inspector general Joseph Cuffari’s chief of staff, its contents were never seen again, and the disclosure about the erased text messages was never included in Cuffari’s semi-annual report to Congress about oversight work.The revelation shows that the Secret Service only admitted texts from January 6 were lost months after they were requested by the inspector general’s office, and that Cuffari might have violated federal law in not reporting the matter in the report to Congress.As noted in the memo, obtained by the Project on Government Oversight and reviewed by the Guardian, the Inspector General Act of 1978 required Cuffari to report “significantly delayed access to information, including the justification of the establishment for such action”.The circumstances around the erasure of the Secret Service texts have become central to the congressional probe by the House January 6 select committee, as it examines how agents and leaders planned to move Donald Trump and Mike Pence as violence unfolded at the Capitol.The Secret Service is a division of DHS, and the chairman of the select committee Bennie Thompson in recent weeks has escalated the loss of the texts with the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, according to sources familiar with the matter.Thompson has spoken with Mayorkas at least twice, the sources said, and the secretary has deputized an attorney in the DHS counsel’s office to oversee the transfer of materials from the agency to Congress, as investigators examine whether the texts can be reconstructed.The memo – approved by the DHS office of counsel, the office of investigations, as well as the office of inspections – is particularly significant because it amounted to a compendium of efforts by the Secret Service to seemingly stymie the review.“Secret Service has resisted OIG’s oversight activities and continued to significantly delay OIG’s access to records, impeding the progress of OIG’s January 6, 2021 review,” the memo said.Secret Service interviewees, the memo said, regularly indicated that they would not provide documents to the DHS inspector general’s office unless they first went through an internal review, a move potentially in violation of the Inspector General Act.The memo also noted that on multiple occasions, when the Secret Service produced documents months after they were requested, they contained redactions. The Secret Service did not indicate who approved or applied the redactions or why they were made, the memo said.Finally, career officials inside the DHS inspector general’s office wrote, the Secret Service claimed they could not access crucial texts from January 6 because of an April 2021 phone system migration that wiped all data from the devices of agents.The memo was sent to an office overseen by Cuffari’s chief of staff, Kristen Fredericks, on 1 April 2022, according to materials reviewed by the Guardian, so that it could be included in the DHS inspector general’s report to Congress – only for it to be excluded.TopicsSecret ServiceUS Capitol attackJanuary 6 hearingsUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      House panels: DHS officials interfered in effort to get lost Secret Service texts

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      House panels: DHS officials interfered in effort to get lost Secret Service textsAfter the inspector general’s office requested the Secret Service’s January 6 communications, the effort was shut down Top officials at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) inspector general’s office interfered with efforts to recover erased Secret Service texts from the time of the US Capitol attack and attempted to cover up their actions, two House committees said in a letter on Monday.Taken together, the new revelations appear to show that the chief watchdog for the Secret Service and the DHS took deliberate steps to stop the retrieval of texts it knew were missing, and then sought to hide the fact that it had decided not to pursue that evidence.The inspector general’s office had initially sought to retrieve the lost texts from across the DHS – spanning both the Secret Service as well as the former DHS secretary Chad Wolf and his deputy, Ken Cuccinelli – as part of its internal review into January 6.But six weeks after the inspector general’s office first requested Secret Service communications from the time of the Capitol attack, that effort was shut down by Thomas Kait, the deputy inspector general for inspections and evaluations, the House committees said.“Use this email as a reference to our conversation where I said we no longer request phone records and text messages from the USSS relating to the events on January 6th,” Kait wrote in a July 2021 email to a senior DHS liaison official, Jim Crumpacker, that was obtained by Congress.The House committees also disclosed they had learned that Kait and other senior officials manipulated a memo, authored on 4 February 2022, that originally criticized the DHS for refusing to cooperate with its investigation and emphasized the need to review certain texts.By the time that Kait and other senior officials had finished with the memo, the House committee said, mentions about the erased texts from the Secret Service or the DHS secretary had been removed and instead praised the agency for its response to the internal review.The memo went from being a stinging rebuke that said “most DHS components have not provided the requested information” to saying “we received a timely and consolidated response from each component”, the House committees said.Appearing to acknowledge the removal of the damaging findings in the memo, Kait asked colleagues around that time: “Am I setting us up for anything by adding what I did? I spoke with Kristen late last week and she was ok with acknowledging the DAL’s efforts.”The disclosures alarmed the House oversight committee chair, Carolyn Maloney, and House homeland security committee chair, Bennie Thompson – who also chairs the House January 6 committee – enough to demand that top DHS officials appear for transcribed interviews.In the four-page letter, the two House committees again called for the recusal of the DHS inspector general, Joseph Cuffari, and demanded communications inside the inspector general’s office about not collecting or recovering texts from the agency relating to the Capitol attack.The deepening investigation has also revealed that Cuffari’s office was notified in February 2022 that texts from Wolf and Cuccinelli could not be accessed and that Cuccinelli had been using a personal phone – yet never told Congress.Kait has a history of removing damaging findings from reports. In a DHS report on domestic violence and sexual misconduct, Kait directed staff to remove a section that found officers accused of sexual offenses were charged with generic offenses, the New York Times reported.The controversy over the missing texts erupted several weeks ago after Cuffari first informed Congress in mid-July that his department could not turn over Secret Service texts from the time of the Capitol attack because they had been erased as part of a device replacement program.That prompted Thompson, through the House January 6 select committee, to issue a subpoena to the Secret Service for texts from the day before and the day of the Capitol attack as it examined how the agency intended to move Donald Trump and Mike Pence on January 6.But the Secret Service provided only one text exchange to the select committee, the Guardian has previously reported, telling investigators that every other message had been wiped after personnel failed to back up data from the devices when they were swapped out.TopicsSecret ServiceUS Capitol attackJanuary 6 hearingsUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      Pence’s security detail wanted to call family, feared for their lives during Capitol riot

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      Pence’s security detail wanted to call family, feared for their lives during Capitol riotA White House national security official said, ‘for whatever reason … the VP detail thought this was about to get very ugly’ In chilling new testimony about the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, the investigating House committee showed that members of the Secret Service detail for the vice-president, Mike Pence, so feared for his and their safety that they “screamed” that other officials should say goodbye to their families.Jan 6 hearing live updates: Trump ‘was derelict in his duty’, Republican Kinzinger saysRead moreA White House national security official whose identity and voice was obscured described the calls in testimony played by the January 6 committee in a public hearing on Thursday night.The official was asked why, after a mob that Donald Trump sent to the Capitol attacked Congress in an attempt to stop Pence certifying Joe Biden’s election win, staff at the White House officially recorded that, “Service at the Capitol does not sound good right now”.The official said: “The members of the VP detail at this time were starting to fear for their own lives. There was a lot of yelling. There were a lot of very personal calls over the radio, so it was disturbing. I don’t like talking about it.“There were calls to say goodbye to family members, so on and so forth … for whatever reason it was on the ground, the VP detail thought this was about to get very ugly.”Such terrified and panicked messages were relayed from the Capitol around the time Trump tweeted to his supporters a now infamous 2.24pm message in which he did nothing to calm the riot.The then president said: “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what was necessary.”News that members of the Secret Service thought they were going to be killed by the pro-Trump mob comes amid considerable tension between the Secret Service and the January 6 committee.The committee served the agency with a subpoena for all text communications on the day before the Capitol attack and the day itself. The Secret Service said the messages had been wiped. It subsequently delivered just one message to the committee.Nine deaths have been linked to the Capitol riot, including law enforcement officers who died by suicide. Nearly 900 people have been charged, some with seditious conspiracy. The committee is attempting to show grounds for criminal charges against Trump himself. The Department of Justice would have to bring any charges.In the primetime Thursday hearing about events on January 6, the national security official said: “I think there were discussions of reinforcements coming but again it was just chaos, they were just yelling.“If they’re getting nervous and they’re running out of options, it sounds like we came very close to either Service having to use lethal options or worse.“At that point I don’t know? Is the VP compromised? I don’t know. We didn’t have visibility. But if they’re screaming and saying things like ‘Say goodbye to the family’, the floor needs to know this is going to whole ’nother level soon.”Referring to controversy over the missing Secret Service texts, the presidential historian Michael Beschloss tweeted: “For all of those Secret Service agents who seem to love and venerate Trump, look at how he did nothing to defend Mike Pence’s agents on January 6 as they called their frightened families to say goodbye forever.”TopicsJanuary 6 hearingsSecret ServiceMike PenceUS Capitol attackUS politicsHouse of RepresentativesUS CongressnewsReuse this content More

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      Secret Service turned over just one text message to January 6 panel, sources say

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      Secret Service turned over just one text message to January 6 panel, sources sayHouse committee wants all communications from day before and day of Capitol attack but agency indicates such messages are lost The Secret Service turned over just one text message to the House January 6 committee on Tuesday, in response to a subpoena compelling the production of all communications from the day before and the day of the US Capitol attack, according to two sources familiar with the matter.Primetime January 6 hearing to go ahead despite chairman’s positive Covid testRead moreThe Secret Service told the panel the single text was the only message responsive to the subpoena, the sources said, and while the agency vowed to conduct a forensic search for any other text or phone records, it indicated such messages were likely to prove irrecoverable.House investigators also learned that the texts were seemingly lost as part of an agency-wide reset of phones on 27 January 2021, the sources said – 11 days after Congress first requested the communications and two days after agents were reminded to back up their phones.The disclosures were worse than the committee had anticipated, the sources said. The panel had hoped to receive more than a single text and was dismayed to learn that the messages were lost even after they had been requested for congressional investigations.It marked a damaging day for the Secret Service, which is required to preserve records like any other executive branch agency, and now finds itself in the crosshairs of the select committee examining its response with respect to the Capitol attack.The circumstances surrounding the erasure of the Secret Service texts have become central to the January 6 committee’s work as it investigates how agents and leaders planned to move Donald Trump and Mike Pence as violence unfolded at the Capitol.The controversy – and the subpoena – over the lost text messages came last week after the Department of Homeland Security inspector general, Joseph Cuffari, the watchdog for the Secret Service, revealed many messages from the time in question had gone missing.In a letter to Congress, the inspector general said some Secret Service texts from 5 and 6 January 2021 were erased amid a “device replacement program” and indicated that the agency was stonewalling his investigation by slow-walking the production of evidence.The Secret Service has said the missing texts were purged as part of a planned agency-wide reset of phones and replacement of devices. Agents were told to back up data to an internal drive, one source said, but that directive appears to have been ignored.Hours after the complaint letter from Cuffari, the chair of the January 6 committee, Bennie Thompson, met the panel’s staff director, David Buckley, and his deputy, Kristin Amerling, before convening members to request a closed-door briefing from the inspector general.The Guardian first reported the inspector general told the committee the Secret Service’s account of why the texts went missing kept changing, among other issues, prompting the panel to issue a subpoena for the texts and after-action reports later the same day.But even as the Secret Service complied with the subpoena, and produced thousands of pages of documents related to decisions made on the day of the Capitol attack, the agency could provide just one text message, the sources said.The Secret Service was also unable to provide any after-action reports, the sources said, because none were conducted. Cuffari said the agency opted to use his review as the after-action report – only for personnel to slow-walk his investigation, the sources said.A spokesman for the Secret Service could not immediately be reached for comment.The fallout from the missing text messages episode, as well as testimony from former Trump aide Cassidy Hutchinson describing a fracas inside the presidential vehicle on January 6 as Trump tried to reach for the steering wheel, has renewed questions over credibility.According to the Secret Service, the sequence of events was as follows: agents were told of a forthcoming update in December 2020, Congress requested communications on 16 January 2021, agents were reminded to back-up data on 25 January and the update went through on 27 January 2021.The agents were told in the reminder about “how to save information that they were obligated or desired to preserve so that no pertinent data or federal records” were lost, though the note seemingly went unheeded and texts were purged.House investigators are currently discussing with the inspector general the possibility of reconstructing the lost texts, the sources said, examining options including acquiring specialized software and forensic tools.The justice department inspector general has been able to retrieve lost texts, recovering messages in 2018 from two senior FBI officials who investigated former presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and Trump and exchanged notes criticizing the latter.The Secret Service was not responsible for security at the Capitol on January 6 – that is performed by US Capitol police – but agents led protection details for Trump, Pence, and other executive branch officials across Washington that day.But Secret Service actions have become a focus for House investigators as they investigate whether and when the agency knew Trump wanted to go to the Capitol, and whether it intended to remove Pence from the complex as rioters sought to stop certification of Joe Biden’s election win.The missing texts are also the subject of a new investigation, after the National Archives told the Secret Service to launch an internal review and issue a report within 30 calendar days, if it found that any texts were “improperly deleted”.TopicsJanuary 6 hearingsSecret ServiceUS Capitol attackUS politicsUS CongressHouse of RepresentativesTrump administrationnewsReuse this content More

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      Secret Service told to begin an inquiry into erased January 6 text messages

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      Secret Service told to begin an inquiry into erased January 6 text messagesThe National Archives asked the agency to report in a month on whether messages were ‘improperly deleted’ The US National Archives has asked the Secret Service to conduct an internal investigation over “erased” text messages from the day before and the day of the Capitol attack, according to a letter sent to the agency’s records management officer on Tuesday.Primetime January 6 hearing to go ahead despite chairman’s positive Covid testRead moreThe request marks the latest escalation of the matter after the watchdog for the Secret Service, the Department of Homeland Security inspector general, notified Congress he had sought the texts only to be told they no longer existed.In the letter sent to the Secret Service records officer, reviewed by the Guardian, the National Archives requested the agency launch an internal review and report within 30 calendar days if it finds any texts were “improperly deleted”.The letter noted that the Secret Service was required to produce a report by law, and that it must report its findings regardless of whether the erased texts were relevant to the inspector general’s inquiry or the House January 6 investigation.“This report must include a complete description of the records affected,” the National Archives said, “a statement of the exact circumstances surrounding the deletion of messages [and] all agency actions taken to salvage, retrieve, or reconstruct the records.”The value of asking the Secret Service to conduct an investigation into itself about messages its own personnel appear to have deleted was not immediately clear, given the agency, the inspector general said, has already slow-walked his internal review.In a statement, a Secret Service spokesman, Anthony Guglielmi, said the agency “respects and supports the important role of the National Archives and Records Administration in ensuring preservation of government records. They will have our full cooperation in this review.”The circumstances surrounding the erasure of the Secret Service texts have become central for the January 6 committee as it investigates how agents planned to move Donald Trump and Mike Pence as the violence unfolded.The controversy over the erased texts erupted last week after the letter from the inspector general, Joseph Cuffari, became public, and the committee went into overdrive to assess the impact on its investigation.In the letter, the inspector general said certain Secret Service texts from 5 and 6 January 2021 were erased amid a “device replacement program” even after he requested the messages for his internal inquiry.The Secret Service has disputed that, saying in a statement that data on some phones were lost as part of a pre-planned “system migration” in January 2021, and that Cuffari’s initial request for communications came weeks later, in late February.But the committee has questioned the Secret Service’s emphasis on that date, according to sources close to the inquiry, noting that the first request for Secret Service communications came from Congress, just 10 days after the Capitol attack.Bennie Thompson, chair of the committee, met the staff director, David Buckley, and deputy director, Kristen Amerling, after he received Cuffari’s letter, and the full panel promptly asked for a briefing on the matter.At the briefing, the Guardian first reported, Cuffari told the committee the Secret Service’s story about how the texts disappeared kept shifting. At one point it was because of a software upgrade. At another it was because devices were swapped out.Hours after the briefing, the committee issued a subpoena for any texts that had not been erased, as well as any after-action reports the agency might have conducted into its response to January 6.Regardless of how the messages were lost from individual devices, the Secret Service, like any other executive branch agency, is supposed to back up data and messages so government records are preserved.But the Secret Service has often flouted that rule, according to a source familiar with the matter, and critical communications have in the past repeatedly gone missing as soon as the Secret Service has become the subject of oversight or internal investigations.At the briefing to the committee last week, the Guardian also reported, Cuffari discussed the feasibility of using forensic tools to reconstruct the missing texts, something the justice department has previously been able to do as recently as 2018.TopicsUS Capitol attackSecret ServiceNational ArchivesJanuary 6 hearingsnewsReuse this content More