Here’s a timeline of how Secret Service text messages became one of the key questions for the House committee as it prepares for the next phase of its investigation into the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. January 16, 2021: Ten days after the riot on Capitol Hill, four House committees send a letter to Homeland Security and other relevant agencies ordering them to preserve records related to January 6. It is not yet clear whether the Secret Service received the guidance. A source familiar with the investigation told CNN the Secret Service tried to find it last week but was unsuccessful. Jan. 25, 2021: The Secret Service “instructed employees on how to preserve the content on their phones,” sending a reminder to employees that a planned data transfer would wipe their phones, according to a Secret Service letter sent to the committee election of the Parliament in July. 19, 2022. The Secret Service’s internal notice made it clear that employees were solely responsible for storing records required by law to be preserved. January 27, 2021: Microsoft Intune phone migration begins, according to the agency’s July 19 letter to a House select committee. February 26, 2021: DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari is requesting electronic communications from the Secret Service for the first time, according to agency spokesman Anthony Guglielmi. “DHS OIG requested electronic communications for the first time on February 26, 2021, after the relocation had begun. The Secret Service informed DHS OIG of the loss of data on some phones, but confirmed to OIG that none of the messages it was seeking had been lost on immigration,” Guglielmi said in a statement on July 14, 2022. March 25, 2021: House committee chairs send letters to the White House and several federal agencies seeking documents and communications related to the January 6 attack. Among the agencies receiving a letter is the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Secret Service. April 1, 2021: Intune migration completed, according to the agency’s letter. May 2021: The Secret Service notifies the DHS inspector general of missing text messages related to the phone data migration issue, according to sources. The agency tells Cuffari’s office that the Secret Service tried to contact a cellphone carrier to retrieve the texts when they realized they were lost, a source told CNN. Key Secret Service personnel mistakenly believed the data had been backed up and didn’t realize it was permanently lost until after the data transfer was complete, the source said. June 11, 2021: DHS inspector general requests text messages “sent or received by 24 Secret Service personnel between December 7, 2020 and January 8, 2021.” CNN previously reported that Trump and Pence’s security chiefs are among the 24 people. The Secret Service responded to the request by submitting a single text message. This message was from former US Capitol Police Chief Steven Sud to former Secret Service Uniform Division Chief Thomas Sullivan asking for help on January 6. July 2021: A DHS deputy inspector general tells DHS that the inspector general’s office is no longer looking for Secret Service text messages, according to two sources.
December 2021: DHS inspector general reopens investigation into Secret Service text messages. According to the letter sent by House Speaker Carolyn Maloney and Homeland Security Chairman Benny Thompson urging Koufari to recuse himself from the investigation, the Secret Service notified the inspector general’s office that the text messages had been deleted. A DHS source told CNN that Cuffari’s office was notified again about the data loss. January 28, 2022: The DHS office of inspector general notifies its employees of an investigation into the DHS inspector general led by the Board of Inspectors General for Integrity and Effectiveness, the umbrella group for inspectors general. The investigation relates to allegations of retaliation following an independent review of office culture. February 2022: The Secret Service notifies the DHS inspector general for a third time about the data transfer issue, according to a DHS source. In early February, according to a Washington Post report, Cuffari’s office staff planned to contact all DHS agencies that offered to ask data specialists to help retrieve messages from their phones. But later that month, the Post reports that Cuffari’s office decided it would not collect or screen any agency phones. In late February, according to the Washington Post, Cuffari learned that text messages for two top DHS officials under the Trump administration were missing and had been lost in a reset of their government phones when they left their jobs in January 2021. June 28, 2022: Former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testifies before the House Select Committee. She says she was told about a heated argument between former President Donald Trump and his Secret Service detail after Trump said he couldn’t travel to the Capitol on Jan. 6. The testimony raises new questions about the Secret Service’s conduct on January 6. 14, 2022: Cuffari writes in a letter to the House and Senate Homeland Security Committees that the Department of Homeland Security has informed his office “multiple U.S. Secret Service text messages from January 5 and 6, 2021, were deleted as part of a program device replacement .” July 15, 2022: The inspector general’s office briefs the House Select Committee on intelligence documents. The same day, the select committee issues a subpoena for records related to January 6. July 19, 2022: The Secret Agency responds to House select committee by providing thousands of records. “Our handover included thousands of pages of documents, Secret Service cellphone use and other policies, as well as operational and planning records,” Guglielmi said in a statement. The agency also said it is receiving measures to try to recover text messages, writing in a letter to the committee that he was examining metadata to determine what messages might have been sent and interviewed all 24 Secret Service agents on the matter. Also on July 19, the National Archives sent a letter to DHS requesting a report documenting any improper deletion of text messages. July 20, 2022: DHS Deputy Inspector General Gladys Ayala writes to the Secret Service informing the agency that the inspector general’s office is investigating the circumstances surrounding the possible deleted texts as part of an ongoing criminal investigation, as first reported by CNN. In the letter, the inspector general’s office instructs the Secret Service to stop its own investigation, writing that it could interfere with the criminal investigation. Before this letter was sent, the Secret Service had identified metadata that showed texts were sent or received on the phones of 10 of the 24 Secret Service agents around January 6, 2021, and the service was trying to determine whether they contained relevant information that should have been preserved. CNN reported. July 26, 2022: Thompson and Maloney ask Cuffari to turn the text message investigation over to another inspector general, questioning his ability to conduct the investigation. The lawmakers wrote in a letter to Cuffari that his failure to timely notify Congress of the missing texts “cast serious doubt on his independence and ability to effectively conduct such an important investigation.” July 28, 2022: Senate Judiciary Speaker Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, called on Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate the missing messages in the lead by January 6. The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment.