Secret Service agents’ request to view communications on seized phones rejected: report

The Secret Service’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Program rejected agents’ requests to obtain a record of the communications found on their personal phones last week.

A letter sent on Wednesday viewed by NBC News informed the agents that their requests had been denied.

“The agency has determined that regulation does not require a records disclosure accounting to be made in connection with your request,” it read.

The agents who inquired about receiving records appealed to the Privacy Act, which protects individual records from public disclosure.

The Secret Service declined to comment on the rejection letter.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Inspector General Joseph Cuffari began a criminal probe into the involvement of Secret Service agents with the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol in July, leading to the seizure of 24 agents’ phones.

The group whose phones were confiscated were all reportedly involved with the insurrection last year.

“The work to investigate the travesty of the Jan. 6th Insurrection is extremely important to us and aligns with the mission of the Secret Service which is to safeguard our nation’s highest government leaders,” the Secret Service told The Hill in late September.

“We have and will continue to cooperate fully with all of the oversight efforts and we have provided everything that has been requested as part of these inquiries.”

The Secret Service, among other intelligence agencies, has been criticized for its loss of key communications that occurred before, during and after the insurrection.

The agency claims that messages may have been lost because of a software migration.