House Oversight Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney and House Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson reiterated their call for Inspector General Joseph Cuffari to step down in a letter Monday.
“We are writing with serious new concerns about your lack of transparency and independence, which appear to jeopardize the integrity of a crucial investigation led by your office,” they said in the letter.
Maloney and Thompson are also requesting transcribed interviews with key DHS IG personnel. CNN first reported that DHS inspector general investigators abandoned efforts to recover the missing Secret Service text messages in July 2021, a year before Cuffari raised concerns about the Service’s transparency Secret and DHS to Congressional Oversight Committees.
“The committees have obtained new evidence that your office may have secretly abandoned efforts to collect Secret Service text messages more than a year ago,” the letter said. “These documents also indicate that your office may have taken steps to cover up the extent of the missing records, raising further concerns about your ability to independently and effectively perform your duties as Inspector General (IG). “
The committees are asking for a list of communications and documents by Monday, ranging from correspondence related to any decision not to collect or retrieve text messages to communications related to congressional notification.
CNN has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General for comment.
The letter shows that a DHS deputy inspector general, Thomas Kait, wrote an email to a senior DHS liaison, Jim Crumpacker, on July 27, 2021, informing him that DHS investigators were no longer looking for text messages. Kait is one of the staff the committee wants to interview now.
“Jim, please use this email as a reference to our conversation where I said we are no longer requesting phone records or text messages from the USSS. [United States Secret Service] related to the events of January 6,” the email said, according to the letter.
The letter also confirms CNN reports that the investigation into the text messages was reopened in December 2021.
The lawmakers said in Monday’s letter that Kait also removed “key language” from a February memo to DHS that emphasized the importance of the text messages to the inspector general’s investigation. The original memo noted that most DHS components had not provided the requested information and noted that the content of the text message is a “critical source of information for the DHS OIG review,” but the final version said otherwise, saying they had received responses, according to the letter.
“These documents raise troubling new concerns because not only did your office fail to notify Congress for over a year that critical evidence was missing from this investigation, but your senior staff deliberately chose not to seek that evidence and then apparently take steps to cover them. Start these mistakes,” the letter states.
It goes on to cite missing text messages for the two top Homeland Security officials under former President Donald Trump: Acting Secretary Chad Wolf and Acting Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli. Information obtained by the committee revealed that the inspector general’s office was aware in February that these messages could not be accessed, but did not notify Congress. CNN has reached out to Cuccinelli for comment.
Monday’s letter is another twist in the ongoing saga of missing messages around January 6. Memos obtained by CNN indicate that the Department of Homeland Security repeatedly reminded the task force to comply with the inspector general and relevant Hill committees.
After the Office of Inspector General raised concerns with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas about compliance with the requests, the secretary issued a September 2021 memo to staff saying that employees should to cooperate with interviews and provide information.
“The Department is committed to supporting the OIG’s mission. DHS employees are expected to cooperate with OIG audits, inspections, investigations, and other inquiries. Any effort to withhold information or obstruct the OIG in carrying out its critical work is against the Department’s guidelines and may lead to serious consequences,” the note said.
Then, in October 2021, DHS General Counsel Jonathan Meyer issued a specific memo dated January 6, 2021, saying the office was cooperating with the House Select Committee investigating the Capitol insurgency .
“Therefore, I direct the Department and its constituents to respond promptly and comprehensively to any request from the Select Committee that it receives,” the memo states. “Such cooperation and transparency are vital to the Department’s obligation to safeguard our nation and its fundamental democratic principles.”