“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,” they said in the letter. Maloney and Thompson are also demanding transcribed interviews with key DHS IG officials. CNN first reported that DHS inspectors general halted efforts to retrieve Secret Service text messages in July 2021, a year before Cuffari raised concerns about Secret Service and DHS transparency to congressional oversight committees. “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,” the letter said. “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 (IG).” The committees are asking for a list of communications and documents by Monday, ranging from correspondence related to any decisions not to collect or retrieve text messages to communications related to congressional notification. CNN has reached out to the Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General for comment. The letter shows that a DHS deputy inspector general, Thomas Kait, wrote an email to a senior DHS liaison, Jim Crumpacker, on July 27, 2021, advising DHS investigators to no longer look for text messages. Kait is one of the executives the committee wants to interview now. “Jim, please use this email as a reference to our conversation where I said we are no longer requesting phone recordings and text messages from USSS [United States Secret Service] regarding the events of January 6,” the email said, according to the letter. The letter also confirms that CNN reported that the investigation into the text messages was reopened in December 2021. The lawmakers said in Monday’s letter that Keith also removed “key language” from a February memo to DHS highlighting the importance of the text messages to the inspector general’s investigation. The original memo said most DHS entities had not provided requested information and the content of the marked text message is a “critical source of information for the DHS OIG review,” but the final version said otherwise, saying they had received responses, according to letter. “These documents raise troubling new concerns that not only did your office fail to notify Congress for more than a year that critical evidence was missing from this investigation, but that your senior staff deliberately chose not to pursue that evidence and then it appears that he took steps to cover up these failures,” the letter states. It continues to report missing text messages for the two top Homeland Security officials under former President Donald Trump — Acting Secretary Chad Wolf and Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli. Information obtained by the committee revealed that the inspector general’s office knew in February that those messages could not be accessed, but did not notify Congress. CNN has reached out to Cuccinelli for comment. Monday’s letter is yet another twist in the ongoing saga of missing messages around January 6. Memos obtained by CNN say the Department of Homeland Security has repeatedly reminded the workforce to comply with the inspector general and related Hill committees. After the Office of Inspector General raised concerns with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas about compliance with the requests, the secretary issued a September 2021 memo to the workforce saying workers must cooperate with interviews and provide information. “The Department is committed to supporting the OIG’s mission. DHS employees are expected to cooperate with OIG audits, inspections, investigations, and other inquiries. Any attempt to withhold information or prevent the OIG from performing its critical work is contrary to its directives Department and may lead to serious consequences,” the note says. Then, in October 2021, DHS General Counsel Jonathan Meyer issued a memo specifically for January 6, 2021, saying the office was cooperating with the House Select Committee investigating the Capitol insurgency. “Therefore, I direct the Department and its Components to respond promptly and thoroughly to any Select Committee request it receives,” the memo in question reads. “This cooperation and transparency is vital to the Department’s obligation to protect our Nation and its fundamental democratic principles.”
