Text Messages from Jan. 6 Deleted from Former Top Defense Officials' Phones: Report
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Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Pentagon building
The Department of Defense failed to preserve the phone records of officials who held top positions at the end of Donald Trump's presidency, allowing the communications of key witnesses to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol to be deleted, according to reports.
The watchdog group American Oversight filed a Freedom of Information Act request for Jan. 6-related phone records of former acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller, former chief of staff Kash Patel and former Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy as well as other prominent Pentagon officials in the days that followed the attack.
But court filings show that the phones those officials used have been wiped, CNN reports.
American Oversight sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland Tuesday, requesting an investigation into the failure to preserve the Pentagon officials' records.
"We urge you to investigate DOD's failure to preserve the text messages of several high-ranking officials on or surrounding the day of the January 6th attack," reads the letter.
"DOD has admitted, in response to American Oversight's FOIA lawsuit, that it similarly failed to preserve text messages and other communications stored on phones from top DOD and Army officials," the letter continues. "The apparent deletion of records from January 6th by multiple agencies bolsters the need for a cross-agency investigation into the possible destruction of federal records."
Miller, Patel and McCarthy are considered important witnesses when it comes to understanding the government response to the Jan. 6 mayhem, when Trump-supporting rioters stormed the Capitol and disrupted the electoral vote count for the 2020 presidential election that now-President Joe Biden won.
National Guard troops were eventually sent to Capitol Hill during the attack.
Michael Nigro/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021
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There is no indication that Miller, Patel, McCarthy or others whose records were sought had anything to do with the phones getting wiped, according to the CNN report.
"It's just astounding to believe that the agency did not understand the importance of preserving its records — particularly [with regards] to the top officials that might have captured what they were doing, when they were doing it, why they were doing, it on that day," American Oversight Executive Director Heather Sawyer told the news network.
Last month, Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph Cuffari sent a letter to the House and Senate Homeland Security Committee, saying that the U.S. Secret Service deleted text messages from Jan. 5 and 6, 2021. The messages were allegedly erased after his office requested the texts for their probe of the riots.
American Oversight's lawsuit seeks the communications the Defense officials had with President Trump, former Vice President Mike Pence, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows or anyone communicating on their behalf on Jan. 6, according to the organization.
The government said in the court filing that American Oversight was informed that the officials' communications were most likely gone.
"When an employee separates from DOD or Army he or she turns in the government-issued phone, and the phone is wiped," the government said in the filing, CNN reports. "For those custodians no longer with the agency, the text messages were not preserved and therefore could not be searched, although it is possible that particular text messages could have been saved into other records systems such as email."
