The House select committee investigating the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, shared that it expects to receive the erased Secret Service text messages from Jan. 5 and 6 by Tuesday.
The committee is set to hold its next hearing on Thursday, July 21, at 8 p.m. ET, and testimony from new witnesses will be presented, members of the panel shared on Sunday.
The news of the next hearing and the obtaining of the text messages was shared by several congressmen who sit on the panel during appearances on different programs Sunday.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) shared on ABC News' "This Week" that the Secret Service was informed by investigators they had until Tuesday to turn over documents, and they expect them to be on time.
A subpoena was issued to the Secret Service on Friday after the nine committee members were briefed on the Secret Service deleting text messages from Jan. 5 to 6.
"We need them. And we expect to get them by this Tuesday," Lofgren said on the show. "I was shocked to hear that they didn't back up their data before they reset their iPhones — that's crazy. I don't know why that would be. But we need to get this information to get the full picture."
Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said that the claims the agency deleted text messages were false while also insisting that the Secret Service would respond "swiftly to the Committee's subpoena."
Related
Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) was on CBS' "Face the Nation," sharing that it is unlikely the committee will hear any more testimony from Bobby Engel, who served as the head of Trump's security detail at the time of the Capitol riot.
The news comes after White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson claimed in her testimony last month that she was told by then-White House deputy chief of staff Tony Ornato that Engel was assaulted by then-President Donald Trump while he attempted to grab the steering wheel after he was told he could not go to the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Both Ornato and Engel were in the car with the president, according to Hutchinson, and have already spoken with the select committee.
Thursday's hearing is expected to focus on the "187 minutes" it took Trump to urge his supporters to stop their assault on the Capitol.
Expected to be seen is videotaped testimony from former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone, who had reportedly asked Mark Meadows to help talk Trump into calling off the rioters, according to Hutchinson's testimony.
Kinzinger shared that the Thursday hearing will shock many, as he called out Trump's actions while the Capitol was stormed by hundreds of angry protestors looking to overturn the election.
"This is going to open people's eyes in a big way," Kinzinger said. "If I was a president sworn to defend the Constitution — that includes the legislative branch — watching this on television, I know I would have been going ballistic to try to save the Capitol. He did quite the opposite."
Related
