Secret Service has turned over more than 1 million Jan. 6 communications to Congress: report

On Tuesday, NBC News reported that the Secret Service has handed over over 1 million electronic correspondences around the time of the January 6 attack to House investigators.

"While the communications do not include text messages, they do include emails and other electronic messages, according to a Secret Service spokesperson," reported Julia Ainsley. "The communications may shed light on lingering questions, including contact agents may have had with rioters, their efforts to protect then-Vice President Mike Pence and what occurred inside then-President Donald Trump’s car when Trump allegedly ordered Secret Service agents to take him to the Capitol."

“We have and continue to fully cooperate with the Jan. 6 select committee," said Secret Service spokesman Steve Kopek in a statement. "While no additional text messages were recovered, we have provided a significant level of details from emails, radio transmissions, Microsoft Teams chat messages and exhibits that address aspects of planning, operations and communications surrounding Jan. 6."

This comes after reports earlier this year that text messages within the Secret Service from the day of the attack have vanished, leading to accusations that higher-ups purged the messages — something they have denied. The inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security axed a plan to try to recover those correspondences in February.

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In addition to a criminal probe into the matter, the National Archives and Records Administration has demanded the Secret Service investigate the missing messages.

"While the contents of the messages remain unknown, the committee may use them as exhibits in a hearing scheduled for Thursday," noted the report. "The content of texts Secret Service agents sent on Jan. 5 and 6, 2021, attracted increased interest in June, after former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson told the House Jan. 6 committee that she had heard secondhand that Trump lunged at a Secret Service agent when he refused to drive Trump’s car toward the Capitol during the insurrection. Trump has denied lunging at the agent."