Leading the story: House Oversight Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney and House Homeland Security Chair Bennie Thompson urged Inspector General Joseph Cuffari in a letter to “step aside” and asked his office to provide documents and interviews, citing emails that showed that its staff may have tried to stop attempts to receive USSS messages.
These include Deputy Inspector General Thomas Cate writing to a DHS official on July 27, 2021, “use this email as a reference to our conversation where I said we are no longer requesting phone records and text messages from the USSS regarding the events of January 6th,” according to the letter. Thompson and Maloney claim they learned Kait “removed key language” from a February memo to DHS that “underscored the importance of text messages” in the inspector general’s investigation and criticized the department for not complying with the December 2021 request for text messages.
Note: Thompson and Maloney cited a CNN report over the weekend about allegations that Cuffari learned of the missing Secret Service messages about the January 6, 2021 riot four months after the event. Why it matters: The letter underscores tensions between Trump appointee Koufari and House Democrats after news of the missing Secret Service text messages from Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, 2021, emerged last month.
The House Select Committee investigating the Capitol Hill riot, which Thompson also chairs, has since subpoenaed the Secret Service, and Cuffari has opened a criminal investigation into the matter. Cuffari told Politico on Monday that while protocols may prevent him from publicly responding “to untruths and misinformation about our work … I’m so proud of the resilience I’ve seen in the face of this onslaught of unfair criticism.”
What else they say: “We are writing with serious new concerns about your lack of transparency and independence, which appears to compromise the integrity of a critical investigation being conducted by your office,” Thompson and Maloney said in their letter.
“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,” they continued. “These documents also indicate that your office may have taken steps to cover up the extent of the missing records, raising further concerns about your ability to independently and effectively carry out your duties as Inspector General.”
What to watch: Thompson and Maloney asked Cuffari to make Kait and Kristen Fredricks, the head of the IG’s office, available for transcribed interviews by August 15.
Cuffari’s representatives did not immediately respond to Axios’ request for comment.
Read the full letter, via DocumentCloud: Go deeper: National Archives asks Secret Service to ‘review’ deleted texts Editor’s note: This article has been updated with more details from the letter and more context.
