“We hope to get them this Tuesday,” California Democrat Zoe Lofgren told ABC without giving further details. “We need all the texts for January 5th and 6th.” Another committee member, Illinois Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger, also said Sunday that he expects the Secret Service to comply with the panel’s summons before Tuesday.
His statements come as the select committee focuses on the deleted Secret Service text messages sent on January 5 and 6, 2021, shortly after supervisory officials investigating the agency’s response to the attack on The U.S. Capitol asked for them, according to a letter. delivered to the committee on Jan. 6 and first obtained by CNN. The panel citation for telephone records represents the first time it has done so publicly for an executive branch agency.
“You can imagine how surprised we were when we received the letter from the inspector general who said he had been trying to get this information and that it had in fact been deleted after he had asked for it,” Lofgren said.
Kinzinger, one of the two Republican members of the January committee, expressed similar sentiments.
“At the very least, it’s crazy that the Secret Service really ends up erasing anything related to one of the most infamous days in American history, especially when it comes to the role of the Secret Service,” he told CBS.
Meanwhile, MP Elaine Luria, another member of the Jan. 6 committee, stressed Sunday that there were still many unanswered questions about text messages, and told CNN’s Dana Bash about “the state of the union “that” one would assume that they had done everything possible to preserve these records, analyze them, determine what kind of things went well or failed that day and their practices and procedures. “
“We want to make sure we understand the background, like now, where are these text messages? Can they be retrieved? And we’ve cited them because they’re legal records that we have to see for the committee,” Virginia said. Democrat added.
The letter on text messages, which was originally sent to the National Security Committees of the House and Senate by the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security, says the messages were removed from the system as part of a device replacement program after the watchdog asked the agency. for records related to your electronic communications.
While the letter does not say whether the DHS control dog believes these text messages were intentionally or for some malicious reason, the incident adds to growing questions about the Secret Service’s response to the attack. January 6 at the United States Capitol.
The Secret Service has been in the spotlight since witnesses described how former President Donald Trump, on January 6, 2021, angrily demanded that his detail be taken to the Capitol after his speech at the Ellipse , shortly before the riots entered the building.
The hearing will examine Trump’s actions during the riots
The Jan. 6 committee will hold its next hearing Thursday at 8 p.m. ET. The prime-time hearing is expected to focus on Trump’s response, or lack thereof, as the mutineers tore down the walls of the Capitol and forced lawmakers to flee their chambers.
Luria and Kinzinger will co-lead the hearing on Thursday. The two lawmakers offered previews Sunday, and Luria told CNN that the panel will “spend almost minute by minute” of Trump’s actions during the 187 minutes of the insurgency.
“He was not doing anything to stop the riot,” he said, referring to the former president.
Kinzinger said the committee will show at the next hearing that Trump was “happily” watching television and “did nothing” when the mutineers attacked the Capitol.
He said the panel will present more than is currently known about Trump’s activity during the 187 minutes that elapsed between the time the crowd entered the Capitol and when he issued a statement asking the mutineers to leave the Capitol.
“The president did nothing, and we will fill those blanks,” Kinzinger said, adding that the committee’s presentation “will open people’s eyes in a big way.”
Both lawmakers said future hearings were possible, and stressed that the work of the select committee is not over yet.
“I hope that when the report comes out, we will be able to have a hearing or two around that,” Kinzinger said, referring to a future post of the panel’s findings. “But of course, as you saw with Cassidy Hutchinson, if we get information that the American people need to know, we can also end up making more audiences at that point.”
Luria said that while this week’s hearing would be the last in the series, “you’ll probably hear the committee again.”
“Whether in the form of hearings or other methods of presenting evidence, but, you know, we have a responsibility to present the things that we’ve discovered, and we’re talking about how the best way to do that is to move forward. after that hearing, ”he said.
This story and headline have been updated with an additional reaction.
CNN’s Jamie Gangel, Zachary Cohen, Ryan Nobles and Jeremy Herb contributed to this report.