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NOW: Rep. Thomas Massie alleges that Alejandro Mayorkas may have violated the Federal Records Act in regards to Secret Service cell phones which were destroyed and data/records which were deleted from and around January 6th in House Rules Committee Hearing.
Video Transcript AI Summary
The speaker questions the deletion of Secret Service cell phone records on January 6th and suggests that it hindered the investigation. They discuss the involvement of Secretary Mayorkas and the possible violation of the Federal Records Act. The speaker expresses concern about the lack of investigation into the presence of pipe bombs near Vice President Kamala Harris and the delayed response from the Secret Service. They criticize Mayorkas for not taking action and obstructing Congress. The speaker concludes by suggesting that further investigation is necessary and offers support for issuing a subpoena.
Full Transcript
Speaker 0: Is it true that the Secret Service cell phone records were deleted for that day on January 6th?
Speaker 1: I'm not certain that all of them. We had difficulty with, getting some of them.
Speaker 0: Was your investigation hindered in part by the deletion of those Secret Service text messages?
Speaker 1: We could have had A better and more thorough report have we had access to all those records.
Speaker 0: When did you discover those messages were deleted?
Speaker 1: During the course of the investigation.
Speaker 0: Who who was the the secretary of homeland security at that time.
Speaker 1: January
Speaker 0: No. When you discovered the messages were deleted. Alejandro Mayorkas. Secretary Mayorkas was the secretary of Homeland Security when you found out those messages were deleted?
Speaker 1: Yes. As best I can recollect.
Speaker 0: Do you do you recollect making this statement, with miss Cheney? And I'll ask to submit this for the record. It's a July 20, 2022 statement by Thompson and Cheney on the United States Secret Services response to select committee subpoena. I won't read the whole thing, but here is here, I believe you said 4 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. Do you still believe there may have been a violation of the Federal Records Act?
Speaker 1: Yes.
Speaker 0: And when do you think these Secret Service records were deleted?
Speaker 1: They were deleted when president Trump was in office. We found out about them later. So
Speaker 0: What here's a statement of Anthony, Guglielmi, chief of communications for United States Secret Service on accusations of deleted text for DHS inspector general asked you, ma'am, unanimous consent to submit this for the record. Objection. And I also ask unanimous consent if I forgot to do it for the Thompson Chaney statement. That objection is ordered. So here This is from the Secret Service themselves.
This now I believe that, before I get into that, I believe there were 4 committees chaired by Democrats who asked for preservation of all communications, including electronic communications of the Secret Service on January 6th. This this is relevant because the Secret Service works for Homeland Security. Correct?
Speaker 1: They're in Homeland.
Speaker 0: Yeah. They're in Homeland Security. Some people may think they're a treasury, but after 9:11, they were transferred to Homeland Security. So here's what the Secret Service said about those records. It says that the OIG requested the communications on February 26th after the migration was well underway.
The Secret Service notified DHS OIG of the loss of certain phones data, but confirmed to OIG that none of the texts It was seeking had been lost in the migration. I think we later found out they were lost, but what he says is on February 26th, The migration was underway. Didn't say it was complete, said it was underway. Now secretary Mayorkas was confirmed on February 2nd. So this would have been 24 days after that that the Secret Service themselves He's saying they're still in the process of migrating.
Now what the Secret Service claimed is that they switched phones and phone providers and then deleted all of the old phones. But it it seems, according to the Secret Service, that they were Still in the process of doing that while secretary Mayorkas was in charge of Homeland Security, which is the umbrella over the Secret Service. So I forgot if I asked you. Did you do you still think it appears that there may have been a violation of the Federal Records Act?
Speaker 1: Well, the issue of That, with the Secret Service came up when the IG was trying to get access to the record and did not tell us That he was trying to get access to the record. We found that out later in the investigation.
Speaker 0: Who who kept you from getting access? The
Speaker 1: Well, to be honest with you, A number of us wrote let 4 of us signed a letter, asking for that information. But in reality, We were not afforded that opportunity to get it. But at the time we asked for it, The Trump administration was still there as president.
Speaker 0: So did did secretary of mail request hold anybody accountable for the deletion of those records and those cell phone records? I'm not aware of it. Are you still trying to get them from secretary Mayorkas?
Speaker 1: Well, you know, our committee has disbanded.
Speaker 0: So you're not interested in that, in pursuing that any further? The fact that you said, I'm going to read your words back to you, appears to be contrary to the federal records retention requirements and may represent a possible violation of the Federal Records Act. I think if if 4 committees of congress gave a preservation notice and the Secret Service deleted Those, communications, that's obstruction of congress. I think we should still be looking into that regardless of when we found out about it And, frankly, regardless of who the president is, what it seems to me that Mayorkas hasn't done anything about this. And according to the Secret Service statement from 2022, It looks like they were still in the process of deleting these cell phone records when Mayorkas was secretary.
I would I would hope that he would be as troubled about this as I am. Let me ask you let me tie this back. Who was who is responsible on January 6th? Who was responsible for the health and well-being of the incoming vice president.
Speaker 1: Of the
Speaker 0: incoming? Incoming. This would be Senator Kamala Harris at the time, she was under the protection of them.
Speaker 1: Well, obviously, Secret Service.
Speaker 0: The Secret Service. So where was she on January 6th while all this was going on over at the Capitol? I don't know. Do you know there were pipe bombs allegedly present on January 6th?
Speaker 1: I know there were 2 pipe bombs, 1 at the Democratic, headquarters and 1 at the Republican.
Speaker 0: So you're in charge of the higher investigation of what happened on January 6th and what led up to January 6th. And you don't know that the vice president was in the d the incoming vice president was in the DNC when that pipe bomb was sitting there.
Speaker 1: Do you I don't You know, we did not our investigation was looking at the facts and circumstances. We knew that there were pipe bombs. We just I'm sure The evidence will say she was wherever she is, but, you know, I'm I'm trying to get to your point.
Speaker 0: Okay. Well, my point is If this bomb had gone off just a few feet from her, this could have been the worst assassination since JFK. And I looked at your January 6th report, and I don't I mean, can you tell me what you wrote about this Pipebomb and the fact that she was almost blown up that day? The gentleman Not right now.
Speaker 1: No. I I've just It's in the report in terms of the submission. It's not in the 850 page document.
Speaker 0: So you guys did your your committee did investigate the pipe bomb or did not investigate the pipe bomb?
Speaker 1: What's I'm trying to figure out we're not a criminal Investigation. We are you know, we we were an oversight body Looking at the facts and circumstances. We were not a criminal body to see who was who laid the bomb or anything like that.
Speaker 0: Okay. I'll give you that. But here's it seems like a lot of criminal indictments came out of of your, the result of your investigation. But here's my concern. So we unearthed a video.
I don't know if you've seen it. When that second pipe bomb is found and the Secret Service is a videotape of the DNC And, a person who doesn't have a uniform on, we're told it's Capitol Hill police officer, found that bomb, walked over to, incoming vice president Kamala Harris's detail, told them there was a pipe bomb. Now I believe that to be true because I've since talked to the Capitol Police and talked to one of the people on the scene that day. He went over they went over and told the secret service detail there was a pipe bomb there. On this video, about 4 minutes elapsed before the Secret Service response.
This is why I'm interested. I know you were very interested at one point in the deletion of the Secret Service text messages, But this is why I am interested, and I would have thought the January 6th committee would have been interested in the 2 Most threatening weapons that were present on January 6th that day. But what happens is a police officer without a uniform on, but must have been known as a police officer to the Secret Service, tells the Secret Service there's a bomb over here. It takes them 4 minutes for the Secret Service to respond. It takes them 10 minutes to evacuate Kamala Harris And this bomb is maybe 15 feet from the building that she's in.
And this is This is why I wonder if you're still the least, you know, bit curious about why secretary Mayorkas has not followed up on the deletion of all these Secret Service texts. Does it does it bother you that they deleted them?
Speaker 1: Well, it bothers me that we did not have access to all the tapes, but it also is within the purview of the OIG. They they and we don't have any, say so as As to what they do until they finish their report, to my knowledge, they've not completed that report.
Speaker 0: Well, there were 4 committees, as you as you told us here, that requested preservation of those Secret Service communications, and they specifically said including electronic communications. And then the Secret Service proceeds to migrate the phones to a different carrier and destroy the phones that were in their possession. Part of this migration, At least part of this migration happened while secretary Mayorkas was in charge of The the DHS, which is what the Secret Service is part of and reports to. This is concerning to me. I don't know if I would have drafted the same articles of impeachment that we see here today.
I think if you gave 4 35 people at the job, you get 435 answers. But one of the things that concerns me greatly is here we had on January 6th, What we are being told are by the FBI and ATF viable bombs within just feet of the the Incoming vice president, 1st African American female vice president in the history of this country is is within feet of a bomb, a viable bomb, for over an hour. The Secret Service takes forever to respond to it. And here we have secretary secretary Mayorkas who was over all of this, Not on that day, but I'm not as concerned about that day as I am now about the information we can't get And the information that he hasn't tried to get as far as I can tell, it might, and I've spoken to the OIG g about this. There's there's apparently, it's still the the word of the Secret Service that this stuff is deleted, and it ain't never coming back.
Because they just did they didn't just delete the electronics. They destroyed the phones. This is concerning to me. I believe there, I believe you were correct when you made this joint statement with miss Cheney saying that there was a possible violation of the Federal Records Act. And when there is a possible violation of the Federal Records Act In in response to and in contravention of a preservation act from congress, which is trying to investigate this very serious event.
I think it's the most serious but least investigated event of January 6th. The fight the fact that there was a pipe bomb just feet from the vice president and the Secret Service. They didn't find it when they swept the area, apparently, and they didn't respond to it for for minutes after they heard it was there. But I am concerned that secretary Mayorkas is either through acts of commission or omission involved in this obstruction of congress. You said it was a possible violation of the Federal Records Act.
I agree with you. I think it is a violation of Federal Records Act. I don't think we've we've had such a clear cut case, and I don't think we've had such a clear cut case of obstruction. So I think, We owe it to the people to get to the bottom of this. Secretary Mayorkas is no help.
He's still stymieing the OIG, still claiming that there's no way that you could get these these records, these communications. And I think it's a it's a very serious charge, And I would I would have included it, frankly, myself. We we sit here, and we ask these questions in these hearings. And they say, oh, congressman, that's the subject of an ongoing investigation. We cannot answer your question.
But if the when they say that to the OIG, we have another problem. These are the people that are set up to oversee what we're supposed to not be privy to, although I would argue that we should be able to get that too. And I believe that your committee and the other committees of which there were 4 who asked for these records were within their Rights and obligations to to the American people to get those Secret Service cell phone texts, but they apparently don't exist anymore. And they disappeared when? When Mayorkas was secretary of Department of Homeland Security.
I've got a real problem with that. Do you wanna say anything before I conclude, mister Thompson?
Speaker 1: Well, I put it to you like that. Chairman Green has subpoena power, with our committee. If he wants to look into that, I'll support it.
Speaker 0: Are you concerned about the lackadaisical attitude of the secret? Or maybe you haven't seen the video. Have you seen the video of this Discovery, the second pipe bomb?
Speaker 1: No. No. I let let me let me just say, a lot of what you said Here to date, I have not been privy to. But I am of the opinion that if the chairman wants to Look into that. You convince him to issue the subpoena, I'll go with him.
If
Speaker 0: I would like to show you that video at some point. I'm surprised your committee did not find it. I mean, there were 2 bombs That day and according to FBI and ATF and and Capitol Police, they were operable, viable bombs. One of them was just feet from Kamala Harris, who was going to become the the vice president of the United States. And the Secret Service sat there in their patrol car.
It looks to me like they finished eating their lunch before they got out to look at it. And then it was 10 minutes. This is all on video. 10 minutes before they got Kamala Harris out of there. And, again, it is secretary Mayorkas who oversaw the production of these documents, these these texts, which were never produced.
And that's a real problem for me. With that, I yield back. Thank you, gentlemen from Colorado.