The U.S. Secret Service gave a House committee on Jan. 6 a list of all personal cell phone numbers belonging to agents based in Washington, D.C., during the period the panel is investigating, according to sources familiar with the matter. with the matter, an unusual step amid heightened scrutiny of the agency’s cooperation with the congressional panel investigating last year’s insurgency and the role then-President Donald Trump played in it.
The committee can now determine which officers’ call records they may want to review, and if they choose to do so, it could request the records directly from officers or possibly issue subpoenas to their cell phone providers, an official with knowledge of the matter said. the situation
The Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the agency, have faced criticism in recent weeks for deleting text messages belonging to agents on and around Jan. 6, 2021. Democrats in Congress have accused the Homeland Security inspector general of abandoning efforts to collect text and phone records from that day.
The search and retrieval of information from the personal devices of federal workers is a “very unusual” step by the committee, according to Don Mihalek, a retired top Secret Service agent, and could reflect a renewed effort by the agency to demonstrate yet plus his cooperation with congressional investigators. .
A Secret Service agent stands behind Marine One at Fort McNair in Washington, DC on July 10, 2022.
Joshua Roberts/Reuters, FILE
The Secret Service has faced heavy criticism in recent weeks as committee testimony focused on Trump’s conduct on January 6, 2021, and what agents assigned to the White House did and saw that day. day.
At the same time, Mihalek said, the agency’s decision to hand over personal device information to the committee could present thorny legal challenges.
“If the agency has turned over these private phone numbers, the only appropriate course for that would have been through a subpoena or a court order,” said Mihalek, an ABC News contributor. “Absent that, delivering them could be problematic.”
A Secret Service spokesman recently acknowledged that some phone data from January 2021 was lost as a result of a previously planned data transfer, noting that the transfer was underway when the inspector general’s office went apply in February 2021.
ABC News reported Thursday that DHS is reviewing its electronic retention policies and would stop wiping the phones of political appointees until the review is complete.
The Secret Service and representatives of the Jan. 6 committee declined to comment.
ABC News’ Aaron Katersky and Luke Barr contributed reporting.