Imagine being a Secret Service agent. January 6 strikes and there’s an insurrection. People are trying to blame your boss, but really, it was just a bunch of right-wing activists who really don’t trust the Democrats.
Plenty of people who showed up in DC on January 6 thought they were doing what was right. They were defending their country. After all, how is it possible that Joe Biden was capable of beating Donald Trump? And with a record number of voters, at that. It was bound to raise more than a few questions.
Throughout the investigation over the “insurrection,” Secret Service agents were told to hand their phones over. Not just their work phones – their personal phones. And since then, agents have asked the agency for the communication that was seized. After all, if it was their personal cell phones, shouldn’t they know what was taken?
No.
Their requests were denied through the Freedom of Information Act Program, which was handled by the Secret Service’s office. Agents then invoked the Privacy Act to demand to know what has been shared from their personal devices.
The request was made in August – and agents still have yet to find out what was taken.
Apparently, text messages had been erased as part of a “planned” upgrade. And Congress and the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security wanted access to these text messages.
A letter was received that read, “This letter is the final response to your Privacy Act inquiry submitted on Aug. 4, 2022, for information pertaining to the release of personal cell phone information and/or other personal identifiable information (PII) by the U.S. Secret Service.”
Note that it says it is the “final response.” This is basically like telling a child to stop asking because they aren’t going to get the response that they want.
The letter goes on to say that “The agency has determined that regulation does not require a records disclosure accounting to be made in connection with your request.”
Essentially, the Secret Service agents are being kept in the utter dark. They have no idea what personal information may have been pulled and what could potentially be twisted and turned so that it can be used against them.
Is it an invasion of privacy? Absolutely.
Should the records be disclosed as part of the Freedom of Information Act? Again, absolutely.
This is yet again a way for the Democrats to completely manipulate the story. They don’t want to share what information they have until they can figure out how they can use it to take Trump – and literally, every Republican who was within a 10-mile radius of the Capitol on January 6 down.
As NBC News reported, “The agents’ effort to find out through a FOIA request what records were seized and the subsequent denial of the request underscores a tension between rank-and-file Secret Service agents and the agency’s leadership over what communications should be shared with investigators.“
According to a source in the know, a total of 24 cell phones had been seized as part of the investigation for the January 6 riots.
Many believe that the seizure of the cellphones has to do with what Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide, told the House committee. She allegedly heard former President Trump had lunged at a Secret Service agent when he refused to drive him to the Capitol during the insurrection.
Further, a member of the far-right Oath Keepers group testified that the leader of the group had been in communication with at least one of the Secret Service agents prior to the riots.
The investigation is still ongoing. The real question is, should the Secret Service agents at least be told what was taken from their personal cell phones?
