US Secret Service set to produce deleted texts from January 6 riots

House committee investigating Capitol assault to hold final hearing this week

A Secret Service agent watches as President Donald Trump speaks in Bedminster, New Jersey, on August 7, 2020. AFP

The House of Representatives committee investigating the US Capitol assault expects to receive text messages it has subpoenaed from the Secret Service within days, panel member Zoe Lofgren said on Sunday.

A government inspector general told the panel last week that the agency was not co-operating with its inquiry into the January 6, 2021 attack by supporters of former president Donald Trump, prompting the committee to subpoena the records.

A US Secret Service spokesman said on Saturday the agency will co-operate “by responding swiftly” to the subpoena.

“We need all of the texts for the 5th and 6th,” Ms Lofgren, a California Democrat, said on ABC’s This Week on Sunday, noting the texts should be produced by Tuesday.

“I was shocked to hear they didn’t back up their data before they reset their iPhones.”

Some of the most riveting evidence from the panel’s televised hearings concerned the president at the time Mr Trump’s actions after he addressed a rally near the White House on January 6.

A former aide, Cassidy Hutchinson, said she was told Mr Trump wanted to join the mob then march on the Capitol, but was blocked by his security detail and a physical altercation took place.

'There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonour will remain.' Congresswoman and January 6 committee vice chairwoman Liz Cheney to Republican colleagues who have defended Mr Trump's claims of election fraud. AFP

'January 6 was the culmination of an attempted coup - a brazen attempt, as one rioter put it shortly after January 6 - to overthrow the government.' Committee chairman Bennie Thompson. EPA

Mr Trump 'was willing to sacrifice our republic to prolong his presidency. I can imagine no more dishonourable acts by a president.' Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger. AFP

Donald Trump had this 'arsenal of allegations. I went through them piece by piece to say, no, they were not true'. Former acting deputy attorney general Richard Donoghue. EPA

'There were no votes to find.' Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger after Donald Trump asked him and his deputy, Gabriel Sterling, to 'find 11,780' votes that could flip Georgia in the president's favour. AFP

Competing against Donald Trump’s lies was like a 'shovel trying to empty the ocean'. Gabriel Sterling, Georgia Secretary of State chief operating officer. AFP

'As an American, I was disgusted. It was unpatriotic, it was un-American. We were watching the Capitol building get defaced over a lie.' Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to then White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, speaking about the insurrection. AFP

'I told him [Donald Trump] that the stuff his people were shovelling out to the public was bull***t.' Former attorney general William Barr. AP

'I respect attorney general Barr. So, I accepted what he was saying.' Ivanka Trump, former White House senior adviser. AP

'We fight like hell. And if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country any more.' Donald Trump on January 6, 2021. Reuters

A Confederate battle flag that reads 'Come and Take It' and shows a military-style rifle flies as rioters storm the Capitol on January 6, 2001. Reuters

A Trump supporter sprays smoke. Reuters

Police attempt to push the mob back. AFP

The pro-Trump mob swarms the Capitol as police release tear gas. Reuters

Protesters clash with police. Reuters

Pro-Trump protesters storm into the US Capitol. Reuters

A police flash-bang blast lights up the Capitol. Reuters

Before the insurrection, Mr Trump is seen on a screen speaking to supporters during a rally to contest the certification of the 2020 US presidential election results. Reuters

People march with those who say they are members of the Proud Boys as they attend a rally in Washington in support of former president Donald Trump. AP

The text messages could provide insight into that episode as well as security concerns surrounding the vice president at the time, Mike Pence, who had gone to the Capitol to preside over the Electoral College certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.

The committee plans to wrap up public hearings with a prime-time session on Thursday.

The hearing “will go through pretty much minute by minute” what Mr Trump did on January 6 after he addressed supporters at a rally near the White House, who then marched to the Capitol, Representative Elaine Luria said.

That includes when he “left the stage at the Ellipse, came back to the White House, and really sat in the White House, in the dining room, with his advisers urging him continuously to take action, to take more action,” the Virginia Democrat said on CNN’s State of the Union.

Ms Luria said the hearing will incorporate previously undisclosed evidence from other White House staff who have not spoken previously.

They “will add a lot of value and information to the events of that critical time on January 6,” she said, without disclosing details.

Even if Thursday’s hearing is the last, the investigation will continue as “it’s very active with additional witnesses coming forward,” with both interim and final reports to be issued later this year, Ms Lofgren said.

The Homeland Security department’s inspector general, Joseph Farica, said in a letter to the committee on Wednesday that texts from Secret Service agents on January 5 and January 6, 2021 were reported lost during an equipment replacement after his office asked for them.

The agency, which is a unit of Homeland Security, says the texts in dispute were not requested until after the equipment changeover had erased some.

“The Secret Service notified DHS OIG of the loss of certain phones’ data, but confirmed to OIG that none of the texts it was seeking had been lost,” the agency said in a statement on Thursday.