A week after the extraordinaryseizure of classified documents from the former chair ’s individual Mar - a - lago residence , top congressional Democrats are vow to take aggressive measures of their own to pry loose documents from a combative Trump - era official whom they ’ve accused of impeding investigations into deleted Secret Service school text .
In a letter of the alphabet to the Department of Homeland Security inspector superior general ’s office published Tuesday , Reps . Carolyn Maloney and Bennie Thompson discourage that further defiance on the part of the inspector general , Joseph Cuffari , would force them to consider “ substitute measures ” intend to “ control [ his ] compliance . ”
The embattled Cuffari and his faculty have reportedly reject to release particular documents or submit to audience touch on missing Secret Service text messages from Jan. 6 , 2021 , the day of the Capitol riot . Wide swaths of messages sent by fellow member of the Secret Service on that mean solar day , which would be unremarkably file away for critique , were deleted . Maloney , chair of the Oversight Committee , and Thompson , death chair of the Homeland Security Committee and of the Select Committee investigating the essay insurrection , made exonerated in the varsity letter that they view Cuffari ’s recalcitrance an act of “ obstruction . ”
Photo: Anthony Behar (AP)
The lawmakers said Cuffari ’s involvement in the probe of the missing schoolbook raised “ serious concerns ” because , they allege , he failed to inform lawgiver that the Secret Service was resist to cooperate with information requests . Cuffari also neglected , they said , to notify lawmakers when he learn the texts had been efface .
“ In luminance of our grave business organization about your want of transparency and independency , we urged you to step away from this critical probe and permit another IG to fill in this workplace , ” Maloney and Thompson wrote .
The Secret Service , which mesh under Homeland Security , has faced intense examination in recent weeks over the apparent deletion of textbook substance from the day of the insurrection — a assault of agency policy and federal recordkeeping laws . The agency has exact in public the messages were lost during a machine - replacement curriculum , though factor were instruct on multiple function to back up any messages in front of the planned migration .
The Secret Secret has traverse any designed wrongdoing . A interpreter for Cuffari did not immediately respond to a postulation for comment .
The Washington Postreportedlate last calendar month that two government whistleblowers had provided Congress with selective information point Cuffari had interfered with plans by subordinates to retrieve the gadget and have them examined by information specialists .
Cuffari was nominated by Trump in 2018 for the Book of Job of DHS inspector general and confirmed by the Senate the following year . He antecedently serve as an advisor to Gov. Doug Ducey of Arizona .
The Post additionallyreportedlast year that Cuffari had blocked an probe into the Secret Service ’s manipulation of protest at Lafayette Square in June 2020 , where crowds were teargassed ahead a photo - op for then - President Trump in front of a nearby church ; as well as another probe into whether the Secret Service had dare federal convention enact to stop the spreading of the coronavirus .
In addition to the Secret Service messages , Maloney and Thompson said Cuffari had “ sought to censor or delay ” the liberation of report detail “ worrisome finding of domesticated abuse and intimate harassment by DHS employees , ” as well as communication theory and drafts related to the investigation . Cuffari reportedly delayed their sacking while seeking legal advice on whether he was permit to disclose documents of a deliberative nature .
The lawmaker said the conclusion to withhold document that might reflect internal decisionmaking was “ not a valid justification ” for withholding them , “ particularly where our investigation is focused precisely on potential misconduct in your post . ”
“ Your obstruction of the Committees ’ investigation is unaccepted , and your justification for this noncompliance appear to reflect a fundamental misunderstanding of Congress ’s authority and your duties as an Inspector General , ” the lawmakers said .
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