WASHINGTON — The House panel investigating the assault on the U.S. Capitol is seeking to recover U.S. Secret Service text messages that could shed light on then-President Donald Trump’s actions as the attack unfolded, but were erased from the agency’s computer system.
“If there’s a way we can can reconstruct the texts or what have you, we will,” Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, told reporters at the Capitol Thursday.
Some of the most riveting testimony from the panel’s televised hearings concerned Trump’s actions after he addressed a rally near the White House on Jan. 6, 2021. A former aide, Cassidy Hutchinson, said she was told Trump wanted to join the mob then marching on the Capitol but was blocked by his security detail.
