Records obtained by an independent government oversight group show that Congress was nearly warned about the missing Secret Service text messages tied to Jan. 6 but in the end, that notice was stripped from a final report issued by Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph Cuffari.
The Project on Government Oversight obtained the draft record first and unveiled that it was this April when lawyers at the Department of Homeland Security initially approved language in a broader report that would have made Congress aware of the deleted texts.
Cuffari, appointed by former President Donald Trump, ultimately did not notify Congress until last month.
The Department of Homeland Security inspector general has come under intense scrutiny in recent weeks. Leaders on House committees for oversight and national security respectively have asked him to recuse himself from any further internal probe of the missing messages.
President Joe Biden last week was allegedly reviewing Cuffari’s conduct, but the White House has since been mum on the matter. A White House spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment to Daily Kos on Friday.
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According to the draft language prepared by attorneys at the Department of Homeland Security, the April 1 alert specifically noted that “on Feb. 23, 2022—more than 2 months after OIG renewed its requests for select Secret Service employees’ text messages—Secret Service claimed inability to extract text message content due to an April 2021 mobile phone system migration, which wiped all data.”
The draft further excoriated the Secret Service, saying the agency “caused significant delay by not clearly communicating this highly relevant information at the outset of its exchanges with OIG during this reporting period. Moreover, the Secret Service has not explained why it did not preserve the texts prior to the migration.”
The “migration” was a reference to what the Secret Service has said in recent weeks was a planned reset of personnel devices, but the agency has yet to explain why it did not retain the data before the migration, and in particular, why it did not retain the data when numerous congressional committees, just 10 days after the insurrection, were asked to preserve records.
April 1 Draft Alert by Daily Kos on Scribd
The draft was approved by Cuffari’s office and the Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General Office of Counsel. Then it was sent to Kristin Fredricks, Cuffari’s chief of staff.
From there, the draft language appears to have vanished since it did not make it into the final report.
The lengthy paragraphs were instead whittled down to two sentences acknowledging there was delayed access to Secret Service records sought by the inspector general, but there was not one mention of the erased texts.
The draft report also highlighted the reluctance of the Secret Service to cooperate with the watchdog.
“As outlined above, during this reporting period, the Secret Service has resisted OIG’s oversight activities and delayed the results of its review and events of Jan. 6, 2021,” it stated.
A spokesperson for Cuffari did not return a request for comment Friday.
The House Committee on Homeland Security and the House Committee on Oversight, chaired by Reps. Bennie Thompson and Carolyn Maloney respectively, released a report last week from 2013 that highlighted ethical concerns and violations dotting Cuffari’s professional record.
Those findings were part of a Justice Department investigation of Cuffari during his time as a special agent in Arizona. The department’s inspector general said then that Cuffari ran afoul of ethics rules multiple times. More on that in the related link below.
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Since Cuffari first came to Congress to tell lawmakers that the Jan. 6 texts were erased—messages were also erased fom Jan. 5—he asked the Secret Service to stop its internal probe of the texts because of “an ongoing criminal investigation.”
Last week the Secret Service reportedly gave the Jan. 6 committee agency-issued cell phone numbers for agents in Washington, D.C. This would allow the committee to verify what records they wish to review or subpoena.
Thompson and Maloney have asked that two of Cuffari’s deputies, Thomas Kait and Kristen Fredricks, sit for transcribed interviews by Monday.
