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In the report, Cuffari also discusses efforts by his office — and “multiple committees of Congress” — to obtain phone communications, emails, and text messages from the Secret Service — but that their efforts were allegedly hampered because the Secret Service had “wiped all phones when it updated software in [the weeks after Jan. 6, and] did not have backup files.”
In total, Cuffari’s investigators ended up receiving one short text message sent by a single Secret Service official that day, according to the report.
The Secret Service disputed Cuffari’s implication that the phones were “wiped” with nefarious intent, saying the software update that left so many communications unattainable had been planned long before Jan. 6.
“It is reassuring that the [inspector general] report does not state anywhere that any Secret Service text messages were inappropriately deleted,” the Secret Service told Cuffari’s office in a letter responding to the report’s conclusions.
After Jan. 6, members of Congress pressed the Department of Homeland Security for a broad range of records, including communications from within the Secret Service. The Secret Service text messages were never provided, and Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., recently said, “We could have had a better and more thorough report had we had access to all those records.”
