SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – An independent government watchdog has obtained emails showing that the Secret Service was aware of a threat to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi before the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot, but only informed Capitol Police hours after the attack had begun.
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Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington published the emails on Wednesday. Agents emailed the Capitol Police at 5:55 p.m. on Jan. 6, 2021 – about five hours after rioters first breached the building’s barricades – about a threat to the San Francisco Democrat.
The Secret Service discovered an account on the right-wing social networking app Parler on Jan. 4, 2021 that, five days beforehand, listed Pelosi and other current and former liberal lawmakers among a list of "enemies."
"January 6 starts #1776 all over again!!" the user posted, echoing the rioters' rhetoric.
The documents’ publication comes as the Secret Service faces additional scrutiny over what the agency did, and didn’t, do before, during and after the attack on the Capitol.
The Department of Homeland Security's inspector general told Congress last month that Secret Service agents' text messages sent on or before Jan. 6 had been erased, which CNN reported that Joseph Cuffari had known about as early as last May. The Washington Post reported that then-acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf and then-acting Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli’s text messages were among those erased.
Democratic chairs of two House committees wrote Cuffari on Tuesday, alleging in a letter that he has "refused to produce responsive documents and blocked employees in your office from appearing for transcribed interviews." Cuffari could be subpoenaed, according to the letter.
Rioters sought out Pelosi on Jan. 6, 2021, and a number of them stormed her office.
A man who was photographed with his feet on her desk will stand trial in December, while a Florida man who was pictured carrying her podium was sentenced in February to 75 days in prison. Meanwhile, a Pennsylvania woman who allegedly stole Pelosi's laptop requested her release from house arrest in order to attend the state's Renaissance Faire.
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