Thompson & Cheney Statement on the United States Secret Service’s Response to Select Committee Subpoena

Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-WY) made the following statement:

“The Secret Service has begun producing records to the Select Committee pursuant to the subpoena we issued last week and our investigators are assessing that information. We have concerns about a system migration that we have been told resulted in the erasure of Secret Service cell phone data. The U.S. Secret Service system migration process went forward on January 27, 2021, just three weeks after the attack on the Capitol in which the Vice President of the United States while under the protection of the Secret Service, was steps from a violent mob hunting for him. Four House committees had already sought these critical records from the Department of Homeland Security before the records were apparently lost. Additionally, the procedure for preserving content prior to this purge appears to have been contrary to federal records retention requirements and may represent a possible violation of the Federal Records Act. The Select Committee is seeking additional Secret Service records as well. Every effort must be made to retrieve the lost data as well.”

Background:

The Secret Service’s July 19, 2022 letter to the Select Committee can be found here.

Relevant portions of the Federal Records Act: 44 U.S.C. Chapters 21, 29, 31, and 33.