According to the Oversight Committee and Jan. 6 Committee, there is “new evidence” to suggest there was a cover-up of the missing text messages, a revelation that has renewed called for the Inspector General to step aside from the investigation into the Secret Service’s erased text messages.
The evidence relates to an official within the Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General Office abandoning a previous endeavor to acquire the text messages in July 2021. The official then went on to remove language from an internal document that expressed the importance of the text messages surrounding Jan. 6.
As a result of this damning evidence, the leaders of both committees have called for more documentation and internal communication from the DHS OIG.
In a joint letter, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and Rep. Carol Maloney (D-N.Y.) wrote to Inspector General Joseph Cuffari that “The Committees have obtained new evidence that your office may have secretly abandoned efforts to collect text messages from the Secret Service more than a year ago.”
The letter continues, highlighting that the documents in the panels’ possession “indicate that your office may have taken steps to cover up the extent of missing records.”
The pair then express that this evidence has raised more concerns regarding Cuffari’s “ability to independently and effectively perform your duties as Inspector General.”
Last week, after it was revealed Cuffari knew the Secret Service messages were deleted as far back as December 2021, Thompson and Maloney called on him to step aside from the inquiry into the missing texts.
