The US Department of Defense wiped the phones of its top officers and the Army at the end of the Trump administration, and deleted all text messages from key witnesses to the events relating to the US Capitol invasion on January 6, 2021. , according to court files.
The acknowledgment that Pentagon employees’ cell phones were wiped was first revealed in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed by American Oversight against the Department of Defense and the Army.
The watchdog is looking for the January 6 records of former Acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller, former Chief of Staff Kash Patel and former Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy, among other top officials. of the Pentagon. Initial FOIA applications were filed just days after the attack on the Capitol.
Miller, Patel and McCarthy are considered crucial witnesses to understanding the administration’s response to the January 6 Capitol invasion and former President Donald Trump’s reaction to the attack. All three were involved in the Defense Department’s response to send National Guard troops to the US Capitol as the riot unfolded. Nothing suggested that the officials themselves erased the records.
The government’s claim in the file that official messages sent that day were not preserved is the latest blow to efforts to bring transparency to the events of January 6. The fact still comes at a time when the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is also the target of criticism for the apparent loss of Secret Service messages that day.
Miller declined to comment. Patel and McCarthy did not respond to requests for comment. The Department of Defense also did not immediately respond to a request from the CNN . US Army public affairs chief Colonel Cathy Wilkinson said in a statement that “it is our policy not to comment on ongoing proceedings.”
American Oversight is now asking the Department of Justice to conduct an “inter-agency investigation” into the destruction of the materials.
“It’s just unbelievable that the agency didn’t understand the importance of preserving their records – particularly with regard to senior officials – who could have learned what people were doing, when and why they were doing it, that day,” said Heather. Sawyer, executive director of American Oversight, told CNN .
Sawyer explained that his organization learned that the records had not been preserved through government attorneys earlier this year, and that the acknowledgment was then documented in a joint report submitted to the judicial body in March.
“The Department of Defense and the Army have informed the plaintiff that when an employee leaves the agency or the Army, he or she hands over the phone provided by the government, and the cell phone is erased,” the government said in the file.
“For those no longer with the agency, the text messages were not preserved and therefore could not be searched, although it is possible that some text messages may have been saved in other systems of record, such as emails.”
The acknowledgment that the records were not preserved has taken on new meaning in the wake of the ongoing scandal over the January 6 loss of texts by Secret Service agents.
“It just shows a general lack of seriousness about the obligation to preserve records, to ensure accountability to the legislature and the American people,” Sawyer said.
The Secret Service said its texts were lost due to a previously scheduled data migration from its agents’ cell phones that began on January 27, 2021, exactly three weeks after the attack on the US Capitol. Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph Cuffari learned that these texts were missing in May 2021, as reported by CNN .
The pattern that exists across multiple agencies prompted Sawyer’s organization to write to Attorney General Merrick Garland, who is already facing a demand from Congressional Democrats to take over the DHS investigation into the Secret Service’s missing text messages.
“American Oversight, therefore, urges investigation into the agency’s actions in allowing the destruction of records potentially relevant to this important matter of national attention and historical importance,” the letter included, citing Democratic Senator Dick Durbin’s pleas that the Department of Homeland Security to be investigated for similar failures, the letter, shared with the CNN on Tuesday (2).
After filing the FOIA request with the Department of Defense and the Army, American Oversight states that the Pentagon acknowledged the request on January 15, 2021.
American Oversight then filed a lawsuit in March to force disclosure of the records. In addition to obligations under the Freedom of Information Act, the watchdog further alleges that the Pentagon, by failing to preserve records, ignored another federal records law that also requires the government to preserve records that have “the informational value of the data in them.” contained”, as highlighted by Sawyer.
“I find it highly unlikely that anyone could say that communications between these senior officials on January 6 would not have the kind of informational value that the Federal Records Act refers to,” Sawyer commented.
American Oversight is seeking records from several other Pentagon officials, some of whom remain in government service.
“For those still at the agency, the Army has initiated a text message search in response to FOIA requests, and expects to complete its complementary research by the end of September,” the Justice Department said in the joint July report.
A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment.
What the Pentagon heard from the White House as the attack on Capitol Hill took place was the focus of the House investigation on January 6, and, according to lawmakers, one of the goals is to address the security flaws of that day.
The House January 6 Committee last week released Miller’s testimony denying that former President Donald Trump had given a formal order to have 10,000 troops ready to be deployed to Capitol Hill on January 6.
“I never received any guidance or orders, or heard of any plans of that nature,” Miller said in the video.
A spokesperson for the Jan. 6 Committee declined to comment on the Pentagon-related records.
A former Defense Department official, who served in a previous administration, told CNN that, during the training of new employees, it is made very clear that their work devices are subject to the Presidential Records Act, and that their communications will be archived. The source further stated that it was assumed that when agents handed over their devices at the end of their contract, all communication logs would be on file.
(CNN’s Jeremy Herb, Katie Bo Lillis, and Ellie Kaufman contributed to this story)
Source: CNN Brasil
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