Text messages from the two top officials in the Department of Homeland Security around the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol were reportedly inexplicably deleted and may not be able to be recovered.
Messages sent by Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf and deputy secretary Ken Cuccinelli were scrubbed in a so-called "phone reset" that went ahead in the weeks after the attack despite the obvious need to preserve records related to the attack, the Washington Post reported Friday.
The inspector general who oversees the department knew about the missing cases as early as February 2021 but failed to inform Congress or take any steps to recover the missing messages.
The new revelation is the latest disclosure about missing evidence surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, effort to prevent the peaceful transfer of power from one president to another.
It comes after the Secret Service, which is part of Homeland Security, says it somehow allowed text messages from agents involved in responding to the Jan. 6 attack to be deleted.
The congressional panel investigating Jan. 6 wants to know why all the texts were allowed to be deleted in apparent blatant violation of rules requiring preservation of federal records and specific requests to keep all records related to Jan. 6.
Wolf and Cuccinelli are both staunch Trump loyalists, although Wolf resigned in the days after Jan. 6 and issued a lukewarm criticism of his ex-boss.
The Secret Service has already been locked in a damaging standoff with both Cuffari and the Jan. 6 committee over the actions of agents, including those in direct contact with former President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.
