Why Did the Pentagon Erase Jan. 6 Messages From Officials’ Phones?
The phones wiped clean belonged to senior Defense Department and Army officials, including then-acting defense secretary Christopher C. Miller and then-Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy.
Landwebs
The Pentagon erased a potential trove of material related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol from the phones of senior defense officials in the Trump administration, apparently in keeping with Defense Department and Army policy for departing employees, reports the Washington Post. The deleted records could have helped investigators piece together what happened on Jan. 6 — and the degree to which President Donald Trump was responsible for delays in responding.
The Defense Department has produced a handful of heavily redacted emails, but no phone communications, according to American Oversight, whose case began as a series of Freedom of Information Act requests, filed with various government agencies less than a week after the Capitol attack. The phones wiped clean belonged to senior Defense Department and Army officials, including then-acting defense secretary Christopher C. Miller and then-Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy.
