Whoopsie, the Pentagon erased all of their phone records from 1/6/21 too

On January 6th, 2021, Americans watched in horror as terrorists overtook the Capitol, smeared feces on the walls and built a gallows to hang the vice president and members of Congress. The terrorist attack was a coordinated effort between Republicans in office, the Trump administration, powerful GOP figures (like Ginni Thomas) and domestic terrorist organizations. Part of the work of the January 6th Committee is investigating just how far-reaching the terrorist organization was within the government, and uncovering the post-Jan. 6th coverup.

The committee has run into multiple roadblocks as they try to recreate what was happening on the actual day though. Weeks ago, we learned that the Secret Service had mysteriously wiped all of their texts from January 6th. Last week, we also learned that key figures in Homeland Security – including the then-acting secretary Chad Wolf and acting deputy secretary Ken Cuccinelli – also erased their texts from that period. Reams of evidence in a domestic terrorist attack just VANISHED. And it’s getting even worse: the Pentagon also erased texts and phone records from key DOD figures.

The Defense Department wiped the phones of top departing DOD and Army officials at the end of the Trump administration, deleting any texts from key witnesses to events surrounding the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, according to court filings.

The acknowledgment that the phones from the Pentagon officials had been wiped was first revealed in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit American Oversight brought against the Defense Department and the Army. The watchdog group is seeking January 6 records from former acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller, former chief of staff Kash Patel, and former Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy, among other prominent Pentagon officials — having filed initial FOIA requests just a few days after the Capitol attack.

Miller, Patel and McCarthy have all been viewed as crucial witnesses for understanding government’s response to the January 6 Capitol assault and former President Donald Trump’s reaction to the breach. All three were involved in the Defense Department’s response to sending National Guard troops to the US Capitol as the riot was unfolding. There is no suggestion that the officials themselves erased the records.

The government’s assertion in the filings that the officials’ text messages from that day were not preserved is the latest blow to the efforts to bring transparency to the events of January 6. It comes as the Department of Homeland Security is also under fire for the apparent loss of messages from the Secret Service that day.

[From CNN]

So, no texts or phone records from the Secret Service, Homeland Security officials AND Department of Defense officials, all centered around the key time period before, during and after January 6th, 2021. It was clear at the time that this was an attempted coup, but to see this plain coverup is infuriating. It’s past time for AG Merrick Garland and the Biden Department of Justice to treat this like a massive terrorist conspiracy. Treat these motherf–kers like they’re Al Qaeda.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.

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61 Responses to “Whoopsie, the Pentagon erased all of their phone records from 1/6/21 too”

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  1. girl_ninja says:

    Trump has to go down for treason and everyone who aided in this coverup must be punished too. What a damn disgrace.

    • Bettyrose says:

      Here’s a periodic friendly reminder that Trump was recorded trying to pressure a governor into overturning the results of a free and fair election (not even all that free and fair given the magnitude of voter suppression overcome to produce those results). And yet he wasn’t arrested immediately and still remains free.

      • CocofromCanada says:

        I am a mom in the living in the middle of Canada and I know this lol

      • bettyrose says:

        It’s easy to forget, though. At the time, it seemed like he had crossed the point of no return in full blown treason. We didn’t realize things were about to get so much worse, but the thing in Georgia is completely provable. He should long since be in prison for it.

  2. smee says:

    Hammer time….if this goes unpunished, the U.S. is doomed

    • Lady D says:

      The CIA working for the president and not the people of the US? When I heard that, I thought you were in big trouble.
      Or the secret service trying so hard to get Pence into a car, and not for his safety? Every one of them should have been fired months ago.
      Slight confusion on my part, are the secret service and the CIA one and the same?

      • Digital Unicorn says:

        Whats this about the SS trying to force Pence into a car? I seem comments on it on other threads but don’t know the full story.

      • Jaded says:

        The CIA gathers and analyzes national security intelligence from around the world. The Secret Service is a federal law enforcement agency that’s part of the Department of Homeland Security. It handles a variety of financial-related investigations such as counterfeiting and bank fraud as well as various cybercrimes. It also is tasked with being the protective service for president and vice president and the White House complex.

      • Chicken Tetrazzini! says:

        Digital Unicorn – Here’s a Newsweek article detailing Pence’s refusal to get in the car with the SS. The implications were that he would be driven away so he couldn’t certify the election and, though not explicitly said anywhere, possibly driven to his death because he did not trust the SS at the wheel

        https://www.newsweek.com/pence-refusing-get-secret-service-car-jan-6-chilling-raskin-1700341

      • Lady D says:

        Thank you, Jaded:) Appreciate the information.
        @DigitalU, the story is in the article here entitled The January 6th Committee has Donald Trump’s Terrorist Blooper Reel. The comment section also fills in a lot of information on Pence and the SS that day. You can use the page numbers at the bottom to go back to pg. 14, or CB page #6920.

      • Both Sides Now says:

        @ Chicken Tetrazzini, thank you for the link!!

        Another interesting detail is that Pences SS detail was calling their loved ones on the 6th. to say goodbye to them. They were fearful of their lives as the actions were taking place. Luckily Pence did NOT leave the parking garage.

        I am hopeful that Garland is developing a tight case against everyone involved, especially Drumpf. Garland knows that he only has ONE shot to persecute Drumpf and he is willing to go the distance.

      • Bisynaptic says:

        The Secret Service was formed under the Treasury Department. I think it still is.

      • Bisynaptic says:

        Correction to my earlier response: the Secret Service is now under Homeland Security.

    • Leslie says:

      Completely agree! Something needs to happen ASAP

    • Bettyrose says:

      I hear that, agree 100%, and remain unmoved by any real possibility of justice.

  3. ThatsNotOkay says:

    Anyone who has destroyed evidence should, at the very least, be barred from holding any government job again. Period. Congress must enact legislation to this effect. That will prevent almost all of what’s to come…

    • Both Sides Now says:

      Agree! We must not allow this to ever happen again!

    • DeniseMich says:

      Ugh this is the second president in the last 60 years to try to tamper with an election.

      We need to change our election process. We should be a popular vote and not the stupid electoral college.

      We all know Hilary had the most votes, Gore had the most votes. I am tired of all this bullshit.

  4. Becks1 says:

    I’m a fed and I’m worried about deleting stupid emails relating to trainings from 3 years ago (I think i’m supposed to hold on to everything for 7 years? and different rules if there is litigation involved). And they just wiped it all from January 6. Sure, that’s typical and normal.

    • BeanieBean says:

      Fed here, too, feel free to toss the training materials as they are not considered federal records!
      As for these yokes, it’s absolutely indefensible to destroy texts, emails, etc. regarding such an event. These ARE federal records & are supposed to be archived. But they knew that. The entire trump admin knew they could get away with anything & we’re seeing just how far, wide, & deep the corruption went.

      • CocofromCanada says:

        And no back up servers? Who is in charge of IT there !)

      • BeanieBean says:

        @Coco: I certainly hope there’s backup servers, but I honestly do not know!! Some days I have a heckuva time getting IT help! And different agencies have different methods, contracts, equipment, etc. Like others, I assume there’s got to be some hacker-genius way of retrieving deleted texts, but I wouldn’t know. I couldn’t even get through the installation process to get access to my email on my government phone! I decided I didn’t want to have such ready access to my work email after all, so I never pursued the issue.

    • bettyrose says:

      I used to work in a federally funded program in education, and we had to hold onto student records for five years post graduation. We kept them in both digital and hard copy formats, per regulations.

    • drbessy says:

      also an ex-govie. EVERY US GOVIE knows these rules and knows how to get around “official” communications when they want a convo ‘off the record’ so to speak. It is LUDICROUS that all these records were wiped with nothing remaining. But, anything digital will have a footprint somewhere- hey hackers, i think the DOJ is hiring. 😉

  5. K says:

    This is terrifying. Cue the BS about erasing outgoing DOD staff phones . Dark clouds, peeps.

  6. Bisynaptic says:

    Speechless.

  7. Rapunzel says:

    *pops popcorn*
    *pours all Hillary’s “butter emails!” on it.*

  8. Cait says:

    America is not going to hold a rich white man accountable. He would have been reelected if he hadn’t mishandled Covid so badly and enough non-whites had not voted in historic numbers. Quiet as its kept Americans are heavily invested in maintaining the racial hierarchy were a completely inept white man no matter his pedigree should be placed above everyone else. And as it stands 53% of White Women voted for Trump the first time and 55% of White Women voted for Trump the 2nd time. They are completely aware that White patriarchy places them on a pedastle even if they have less power than white men . They still have more power than every other group of women in America

    • BlueToile says:

      @CAIT Every single thing you said is both sad and true. No one in the actual government will he held accountable. The very low level individuals who actually stormed the capitol are seeing the inside of a courtroom, but most of their sentences are so light it is just unbelievable. Our democracy is doomed. The rot goes too far in all agencies, federal, state, and local. There is no other country to declare war on us and restore our democracy a la Germany in WWII. This all comes back to racism and privilege.

    • bettyrose says:

      I’m not disagreeing with you, but he didn’t “mishandle” COVID, which suggests a flawed attempt at handling it. He actively used COVID to murder millions of Americans.

  9. gemgirlaa says:

    Obstruction of justice and criminal conspiracy sounds like an easy charge under the (RICO) Act. This United States federal law provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization.

    • GoldenMom says:

      Assuming that someone has the spine to actually bring the charge…and clearly, they don’t. These people are not afraid because they know nothing will come of any of it if they just wait it out.

      How on earth did we get here????

      • gemgirlaa says:

        Fanny Willis, please show those old white men how it’s done. The district attorney has not been shy about her office’s intent to potentially use Georgia’s state RICO statute if the widely-publicized Trump/election fraud phone call investigation leads to criminal charges. I know it’s just one piece of this mess – but one domino falls, and the rest can too.

  10. Miranda says:

    Can we NOT wait for a “the Reichstag is burning” moment before we do something about this terrifying descent into a fascist dystopia?

  11. SknowMercy says:

    Our great adversary remains the apparatus—the bureaucracy, it’s not like all these folks switch out every administration.

    • Alarmjaguar says:

      Historian here- the civil service system is way better than switching every election (the patronage system), the whole point of merit is that you aren’t beholden to the president or other elected official for your job and so would be willing to do what is right — )’however, we do need to hold people accountable. Folks who are in the wrong need to be held accountable!! And if you break the law (and there are laws about destroying federal records) you not only lose your job, you should be prosecuted. There must be accountability!

  12. Giddy says:

    You can be sure that these officials and Secret Service agents had been promised jobs with Republican run corporations when they left government. I hope journalists will map out who did what, and have now landed in cushy jobs. I’m not talking about just generals etc because they always have their corporate boards lined up, but the secretaries who know what was done or were ordered to wipe records by their bosses. Trump is like a poison that has reached deeper than imagined and every bit of it needs to be exposed and ripped out. It’s amazing to me that anyone would have been willing to commit treason on behalf of this ridiculous fool with his orange pancake makeup, his comb over, and his Depends. Traitors need to go to jail.

  13. Stacey says:

    What did the Trump Administration learn from the Mueller Investigation?

    – destroy evidence to cover up criminality
    – refuse to co-operate with investigation
    – lie, lie, lie

    When there are no consequences, criminals keep getting bolder. Trump has corrupted the US government and it is farther reaching than anyone knows at this point.

    • GoldenMom says:

      Thank you, you perfectly summarised what I was trying to say while running around, freaking out…

      Once again, Celebitchy helps me use words.

  14. Izzy says:

    Anyone who had access to those records with the ability to delete them should just be purged from the DOD and Secret Service. Every last one of them, and if they are still on active duty, they get a dishonorable discharge

    • Both Sides Now says:

      @ Izzy, I agree!! They were certainly willing participants to erase any type of evidence. They should be discharged and their pensions withdrawn.

  15. Louisa says:

    Meanwhile 45 spent the weekend whooping it up at his golf course hosting a Saudi sponsored tournament (where the trophy looked like the wreckage of one of the towers) and laughing with the crowd who were cheering “Let’s go Brandon”. He’s a traitor plain and simple and at this point I honestly believe he is trolling the authorities and seeing just how far he can go and just how far his cult will follow him. I guarantee those idiots at the tournament and saw nothing wrong with it were the same people burning The Chicks albums 20 years ago and screaming about “never forget”.
    Oh and why has his deposition in NY not been rescheduled? It was canceled because of Ivana’s death but looks like his mourning period is over.

    • Both Sides Now says:

      Drumpf had no mourning period. He held a rally the evening that her body was found. Drumpf has held 3 within the week Ivana died. Drumpf is dragging his heels to testify but he will be held in contempt if he refuses to appear. Deep down, I still believe that Drumpf was involved in her death. It’s much too convenient for her to have passed, plus her curious injuries as well. Anyone within his circle is a scapegoat to his misdeeds, including his children.

    • BeanieBean says:

      Is this the same golf course where he had Ivana buried? What’d they do, tee off from her grave marker?

      • Both Sides Now says:

        I think it is. What I find interesting is that a great deal of the 9/11 victims families are not withholding thoughts as to how disgusting that Drumpf is holding this so-called golf match. He is even preparing to hold a secondary one at his FL course as well. This isn’t playing out to be the kudos he was hoping to achieve. Many people are seeing his tournament as a blatant disgrace to ALL Americans!! I hope this creates an enormous opportunity for him to lose supporters as well.

  16. olliesmom says:

    Maybe the upside of all of this is that it has exposed this infestation. While the democrats were doing whatever these vermin infested every agency. Every agency needs to be purged of these traitors after the orange clown. Time for a thorough cleansing.

    I can’t imagine with the technology that is out there that they can’t bring up those records ever again. They are still out there somewhere.

    • olliesmom says:

      And I wanted to add that they have infested our local police depts all the way up to the Pentagon.

    • Both Sides Now says:

      I agree!! There have been many cases where certain companies have the capacity to recover erased data. They may think that their actions eliminated their participation, but they are sadly mistaken.

    • Deering24 says:

      Yeah, there have to be backups in the cloud somewhere.

  17. BeanieBean says:

    Secret Service, Homeland Security officials, Department of Defense officials, all exhibiting the same behavior as the now-notorious WAG, Rebekah Vardy. I expect to hear next that somebody accidentally dropped their phone in the Potomac or the Tidal Basin.

    • Bisynaptic says:

      Exactly what I was just thinking: cell phones being furiously chucked into the Potomac.

  18. lh says:

    I’ve always had a feeling all these officials were participating in a coup de’etat. Not against the American public but against a sitting president. That’s were the cover up is. They were trying to keep America safe against the president but they don’t want that out because even that has the potential to shake democracy and expose how scary this all was.
    I bet there is more people to thank they we know or will ever know. I can’t imagine what it was like dealing with ignorant buffoon up close and personal that had the potential to declare war… in a tweet no less.

  19. Mrs. Smith says:

    Can you imagine the info on those erased texts!! It must be so bad, so damning, that risking federal charges and possible prison time for outright obstruction and destroying evidence is the better option for these people.

  20. MsIam says:

    I have no respect for anyone who even thinks about voting for this asshole again, or anyone he endorses. Sorry, never sorry. The only reason why he should not be in jail is if he flees to a country where we have no extradition treaty. Which could explain his cozying up to the Saudis.

  21. usavgjoe says:

    Heads need to roll, then.

  22. why says:

    the US is busy with other countries’ democracies but look at this.
    maybe clean your house first?