The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general has opened a criminal investigation into the destruction of Secret Service phone text messages related to January 6th.
The Secret Service was informed of the probe Wednesday night by the office of the Inspector General of DHS, who ordered the agency to stop any internal investigations into the deleted text messages, according NBC News.
In a letter to Secret Service Director James Murray, DHS deputy inspector general Gladys Ayala wrote: “To ensure the integrity of our investigation, the USSS must not engage in any further investigative activities regarding the collection and preservation of the evidence referenced above. This includes immediately refraining from interviewing potential witnesses, collecting devices or taking any other action that would interfere with an ongoing criminal investigation.”
The Secret Service said in a letter on Thursday that they were “in receipt of the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General’s letter.”
“We have informed the January 6th Select Committee of the Inspector General’s request and will conduct a thorough legal review to ensure we are fully cooperative with all oversight efforts and that they do not conflict with each other,” the agency added.
