The coverup

Career officials at the Department of Homeland Security’s office of the inspector general added language about the missing [Secret Service] texts to a mandatory report to the Hill, along with sharp criticism of the Secret Service. But that draft language didn’t make it into the final document, which is public.

And the DHS inspector general’s office didn’t tell Congress about the deleted Secret Service text messages until July.

[...]

The language that didn’t make it into the final report to Congress included specific detail about resistance the watchdog office faced in obtaining Secret Service texts during “this reporting period,” meaning Oct. 1, 2021, through March 31. Over that time period, “Secret Service has resisted OIG’s oversight activities and continued to significantly delay OIG’s access to records, impeding the progress of OIG’s January 6, 2021 review,” the draft text opens.

The draft language then said that Secret Service interviewees refused to provide documents directly to the inspector general’s office, which amounted to “resistance to OIG’s oversight activities, for which justification has not been provided.”

[...]

Unlike the text Congress received, the draft language also said explicitly that the Secret Service’s resistance to oversight was ongoing.

“As outlined above, during this reporting period, the Secret Service has resisted OIG’s oversight activities and delayed the results of its review of the events of January 6, 2021,” it concluded.

[...]

In the end, the document that went to the Hill included just two sentences on the topic.

“During the previous reporting period, we included information about Secret Service’s significant delay of OIG’s access to Secret Service records, impeding the progress of our January 6, 2021 review,” reads the report Congress received. “We continue to discuss this issue with Secret Service.”

[...]

Congressional aides have obtained the same documents that the Project on Government Oversight obtained, according to two people familiar with the materials.

  Politico

Can't wait until the September January 6 Committee hearings. I'm hoping IT experts will have recovered the texts.