Secret Service Deletes Texts; Raskin Smells a Rat

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The US Secret Service is the federal agency which, among other duties, is charged with providing personal protection to the President and Vice President of the United States and their families.   Through those protection duties the Secret Service has almost constant contact with our nation's Presidents.  Agents are in their presence during the best and worst of times, and their recollections and records form a unique perspective and history of each presidency.

Congress, realizing the importance of preserving the records of our national government, has charged the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) with preserving all records generated by our national government.  With that record-keeping obligation already on the books, Congress should not have to be overly concerned with agents of the federal government properly maintaining their records in preparation for their ultimate transfer to the National Archives.  

But things are not always simple and straightforward with our government, and the preservation of records  can be impaired when employees of the government fail to follow established policies and protocols.  But when Congress goes out of its way to direct that specific records be preserved for a specific purpose, and then those government records are subsequently destroyed, well . . . it just does not pass the smell test.

The United States Congress was attacked by a hostile mob on January 6th, 2021, in what many felt was an armed insurrection fomented by several prominent individuals in and around government including the President of the United States.  Immediately after the attack resolve began building within Congress and the US Justice Department to investigate the attack and bring those responsible to justice.  

According to CNN, Congress told the Secret Service on January 16th and again on January 25th, 2021, that it needed to "protect and produce" records related to the attack on the US Capitol for four different committees who were investigating the attack.  On January 27th, again according to CNN, the Secret Service began a scheduled "reset" of their phones.  Last week it was revealed that many of the text messages sought by the House January 6th committee had been erased and lost during that reset.

The House subsequently issued a subpoena for the text messages, but that request has been met with the transfer of other records and copies of Secret Service policies, but no text messages.  The Secret Service reiterated that they had unfortunately been erased.  

The National Archives has also issued a demand for the missing text messages.

When an agent of the United States government creates a record, whether it be a manifesto on gilt-edged paper or a lowly text message, that record becomes the property of the citizens of the United States.  Those messages were ours, but the Secret Service seems to think that they can pick and choose what enters the public domain and what gets pitched.

The missing text messages that were sent on and around January 6th, 2021, could go a long way toward proving Donald Trump's involvement in the insurrection - or maybe they could even exonerate him.  Many of the text messages were generated by agents who were in close proximity to Trump during the events of that horrendous day.  The fact that the messages from that particular time are the ones missing is suspicious almost to the point of defying belief.

Congressman Jamie Raskin summed the situation up when he said, "I smell a rat."

It is probably a whole nest of rats that the congressman is smelling!