Jan. 6 committee expects more information soon from Secret Service amid deleted Jan. 6 messages

(WASHINGTON) — Ahead of Thursday’s hearing by the House’s Jan. 6 committee, investigators anticipate receiving more information from the Secret Service “to get the full picture” of what occurred before and during the Capitol insurrection last year, including as it related to text messages agents sent in that period of time, Rep. Zoe Lofgren said Sunday.

“We expect to get them by this Tuesday,” Lofgren, a California Democrat and member of the House committee, told ABC “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz. Lofgren was referring to “pertinent texts” the agency said they had in the wake of a complaint last week from an internal watchdog that the Secret Service had deleted texts from Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, 2021, after the watchdog sought those records.

“We need all of the texts from the fifth and sixth of January. I was shocked to hear that they didn’t back up their data before they reset their iPhones. That’s crazy, and I don’t know why that would be,” Lofgren told Raddatz, “but we need to get this information to get the full picture.”

In a previous statement, the Secret Service — which was subpoenaed by the committee on Friday — said any “insinuation” that they intentionally deleted texts was false and that the committee had their “full and unwavering cooperation.”

On “This Week,” Raddatz asked Lofgren about what evidence the public could expect at Thursday’s hearing, which the committee has said will detail the Trump White House’s reaction to the unfolding riot.

“I’m going to let the hearings speak for itself, but we hope to go through minute by minute what happened, what didn’t happen on that day and people can make their own judgment,” Lofgren said.

She said the hearing would not touch on the allegation of witness tampering that Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, the committee’s vice-chair, raised during the last hearing — saying that Trump had attempted to contact an unnamed witness who hasn’t appeared publicly. (Trump’s spokesman called Cheney a liar.)

Raddatz noted that while some in the public have been influenced by the committee’s evidence during the hearings, “a recent Monmouth poll [from late June] found less than a quarter of Americans are paying attention and 90% of those say the hearings have not changed their minds.”

“I think some people have heard us. More than 55 million people have watched some part of the committee proceedings,” Lofgren said.

Meanwhile, she said, “This investigation is very much ongoing. The fact that series of hearings is going to be concluded this Thursday doesn’t mean that our investigation is over. It’s very active, new witnesses are coming forward, additional information is coming forward.”

The committee is also weighing seeking interviews with Trump and Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence, as was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

“Everything is on the table,” Lofgren said — including a possible criminal referral, which committee members have repeatedly said they are considering but which amounts to a symbolic gesture rather than a legal directive. The decision is ultimately up to prosecutors.

As for the Department of Justice’s cases related to Jan. 6, Lofgren said she believed the wrongdoing went beyond the false electors scheme the committee had detailed — evidence the committee said the DOJ has now requested.

“I do think that there’s a much broader plot here. I think that’s pretty obvious,” Lofgren said. “I would not want to tell the attorney general how to conduct his investigations. But I will say this, they have subpoena power and they have a lot easier way to enforce their subpoenas than the Congress does.”

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