The U.S. Secret Service gave a House committee on Jan. 6 a list of agency-issued cell phone numbers belonging to agents based in Washington, D.C., during the period the panel is investigating, according to sources familiar with the matter.
The move is an unusual step amid heightened scrutiny of the agency’s cooperation with the congressional panel investigating last year’s insurgency and the role then-President Donald Trump played in it.
The committee can now determine which agents’ call records they may want to review and, if they choose to do so, could ask them directly or possibly issue subpoenas to their cellphone providers, an official with knowledge of the situation said.
Meanwhile, the inspector general in charge of the Secret Service has obtained a list of personal cell phones as part of its own investigation related to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
The Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the agency, have faced criticism in recent weeks for deleting text messages belonging to agents on and around Jan. 6, 2021. Democrats in Congress have accused the Homeland Security inspector general of abandoning efforts to collect text and phone records from that day.
The search and retrieval of information from federal workers’ personal devices is a “highly unusual” step, according to ABC News contributor Don Mihalek, a retired top Secret Service agent, and could reflect a renewed effort by the agency to further demonstrate its cooperation with congressional investigators. .
A Secret Service agent stands in wait after Marine One at Fort McNair in Washington, DC on July 10, 2022.
Joshua Roberts/Reuters, FILE
The Secret Service has faced heavy criticism in recent weeks as committee testimony focused on Trump’s conduct on January 6, 2021, and what agents assigned to the White House did and saw that day. day.
At the same time, Mihalek said, the agency’s decision to hand over personal device information to the committee could present thorny legal challenges.
A Secret Service spokesman recently acknowledged that some phone data from January 2021 was lost as a result of a previously planned data transfer, noting that the transfer was underway when the inspector general’s office went apply in February 2021.
ABC News reported Thursday that DHS is reviewing its electronic retention policies and would stop wiping the phones of political appointees until the review is complete.
The Secret Service and representatives of the Jan. 6 committee declined to comment.
ABC News’ Aaron Katersky and Luke Barr contributed to the report.
