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Storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021: "The text messages were not kept"
Photo: Leah Millis / REUTERS
It could be a great treasure trove of material lost forever: The Pentagon apparently deleted the text messages of numerous high-level employees after the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
This is reported by the Washington Post and CNN, citing court documents that the American Oversight observer group has put online.
The files indicated that the phones of officers responsible for mobilizing the National Guard in response to the Trump supporters' attack had been wiped.
Among them were the then Secretary of Defense Christopher C. Miller and the Secretary of the Army at the time, Ryan McCarthy, who was subordinate to him.
According to the report, the deletion of the communications was apparently in accordance with the Department of Defense and the Army's guidelines for outgoing employees.
According to the files, "The text messages were not kept."
Just a few weeks ago it became known that text messages from Secret Service employees from the day of the attack were also destroyed.
"The Department informed us that many Secret Service text messages dated January 5 and 6, 2021 were deleted as part of an equipment replacement program," US media quoted a letter from the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general, who oversees the agency, as saying in mid-July is.
The Secret Service is responsible, among other things, for the personal protection of the President.
"Take me to the Capitol"
The Secret Service was recently in focus after testimony from a former White House employee.
Cassidy Hutchinson reported that on Jan. 6, Trump allegedly angrily asked his top Secret Service bodyguards to drive him to the Capitol.
The observer group American Oversight criticized the deletions.
It is becoming clear that it is not just a problem of the Defense and Army Departments, but an overarching one, said spokeswoman Dara Silvestre of the Washington Post.
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