| The Secret Service said Tuesday that it may not be able to recover a batch of erased text messages from phones used by its agents around the time of the January 6 Capitol riot. The Secret Service on Tuesday delivered to the House January 6 committee “thousands of pages of documents, Secret Service cell phone use and other policies, as well as operational and planning records” related to decisions made on January 6, according to agency spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.
At the time, Guglielmi said the Secret Service was still attempting a forensic search for the deleted phone records, however, later on Tuesday Guglielmi said the phone records were probably not recoverable. The committee subpoenaed the missing text messages and other material from the Secret Service last week after it was told by the inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security that the agency was unable to produce some text messages from its agents’ phones from January 5 and January 6, 2021. The Secret Service said the missing messages were deleted as part of a technology update that was not related to its work around January 6. The National Archives on Tuesday sought more information on “the potential unauthorized deletion” of agency text messages and asked the Secret Service to report back to the Archives within 30 days about the deletion of any records, including describing what was purged and the circumstances of how the documentation was lost.
Meanwhile, a federal prosecutor told jurors on Tuesday at Steve Bannon’s criminal trial that the former adviser to former President Trump decided he was “above the law” in defying a subpoena from the January 6 committee. Bannon, who is on trial on two contempt of Congress charges after he declined last year to provide testimony or documents to the committee, has pleaded not guilty. If found guilty, each charge carries a mandatory minimum of 30 days in jail. Bannon’s attorney, Evan Corcoran, said in his opening statement that Bannon is “innocent of these charges” and that he engaged with the committee after he was subpoenaed under the impression that it would negotiate with his attorney and that its deadlines “were not fixed.” Corcoran also said that committee staff and lawyers for proposed witnesses almost always negotiate and that witnesses often appear at a date later than the one specified in a subpoena. Prosecutor Amanda Vaughn said that the subpoena issued last September “wasn’t optional. It wasn’t a request. And it wasn’t an invitation. It was mandatory.” “The defendant decided he was above the law,” Vaughn added. “That’s why we’re here today,” Vaughn said, noting that the committee had reason to believe Bannon might have information about the events leading up to the insurrection.
Finally, former Trump White House aide Garrett Ziegler met on Tuesday with the January 6 committee. An aide to former White House economic adviser Peter Navarro, Ziegler may be able to provide the committee with additional information about the circumstances around an Oval Office meeting on December 18, 2020. Ziegler reportedly took credit for admitting the meeting’s attendees into the White House, which included former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump attorney Sidney Powell. News of Ziegler’s interview came after Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) announced that he had tested positive for COVID-19 and plans to isolate in the coming days. The committee said Thursday’s hearing would not be impacted. Associated Press, New York Times, Politico, The Hill, Reuters, CNN, NPR |