What is going on inside the Secret Service tonight?
Earlier today, Politico’s Kyle Cheney reported this: “The DHS inspector general says ‘many’ Secret Service text messages dating to Jan. 5-6, 2021 were erased — even after the IG asked to see them.”
In response to this, the Secret Service official spokesperson tweeted “We take strong issue with these categorically false claims and I will be responding in detail shortly.” Later, the Secret Service posted this press release:
The insinuation that the Secret Service maliciously deleted text messages following a request is false. In fact, the Secret Service has been fully cooperating with the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General (DHS OIG) in every respect – whether it be interviews, documents, emails, or texts.
First, in January 2021, before any inspection was opened by OIG on this subject, the Secret Service began to reset its mobile phones to factory settings as part of a pre-planned, three-month system migration. In that process, data resident on some phones was lost.
DHS OIG requested electronic communications for the first time on Feb. 26, 2021, after the migration was well under way. The Secret Service notified DHS OIG of the loss of certain phones’ data, but confirmed to OIG that none of the texts it was seeking had been lost in the migration.
Second, DHS OIG’s allegation regarding DHS’s cooperation with its investigation is neither correct nor new. To the contrary, DHS OIG has previously alleged that its employees were not granted appropriate and timely access to materials due to attorney review. DHS has repeatedly and publicly debunked this allegation, including in response to OIG’s last two semi-annual reports to Congress. It is unclear why OIG is raising this issue again.
So what is going on here? Whatever it is, it’s extraordinary. The Homeland Security Inspector General – who is tasked with investigating all potential internal scandals within the Department of Homeland Security, which includes the Secret Service – is accusing the Secret Service of having destroyed evidence after he and Congress requested that evidence. In response, the Secret Service appears to be accusing the Inspector General of having essentially made the whole thing up.
Two weeks ago Cassidy Hutchinson publicly testified under oath that Donald Trump tried to take the wheel from his Secret Service detail and drive himself to the Capitol so he could lead the insurrection personally. Then anonymous sources leaked to the media that her story was supposedly inaccurate. Then multiple other sources inside the Secret Service leaked to the media that her story was accurate. Then the Secret Service Director abruptly announced last week that he was “retiring” and taking a job in the tech sector. Then tonight CNN reported that a Capitol police officer has corroborated Hutchinson’s story to the January 6th Committee.
So where does this leave us? The Secret Service Director’s abrupt “retirement,” in the midst of the Secret Service getting dragged into the center of the January 6th public hearings, was highly suspicious in its own right. And now the Inspector General is accusing the Secret Service of having destroyed evidence after learning that its actions on January 6th are being scrutinized. This is all nothing short of surreal.
It’s worth noting that while the Secret Service Director has announced his retirement, he’s still scheduled to remain on the job through the end of the month. The official Secret Service statement issued tonight was, presumably, done with his blessing. He might now have a hard time making it all the way to the end of the month without being forced out by DHS leadership.
At this point we can seemingly expect that the January 6th Committee is interviewing various Secret Service personnel who are willing to set the record straight, and subpoenaing any agents who have not been cooperative.
We can probably expect a public hearing at some point that focuses on whoever within the Secret Service has been trying to protect Trump and/or cover things up for him. The bigger question may be whether the Secret Service as a whole will be actively working with the committee by that time in an effort to get the truth out and rebuild its reputation, or if the Secret Service will still be taking a defensive posture by that point. Either way, this is a particularly disturbing turn for an agency that has traditionally always been held in high public regard. Is there anything Donald Trump can’t pollute?
