Nestled in special counsel Jack Smith's response to Donald Trump's demand to delay the criminal case around the 2020 election until 2026 is a key detail about the documents he has from the Secret Service.
One of the key frustrations from the House Select Committee investigating Jan. 6 and the attempt to overthrow the 2020 election was that the Secret Service "accidentally" deleted every text communication between agents and officials from that day. It was scheduled maintenance, the Homeland Security Inspector General's report explained in 2022.
At the time, the Secret Service denied the report from the IG.
But Smith revealed in his filing that the 3.1 million pages of Secret Service emails did exist – and he has them.
It's unknown how many of those had not been seen by the House Select Committee.
Among the things that the committee had discovered from emails was that there had been a series of warnings about the possible attacks on Jan. 6 well before the Capitol insurrection happened.
The agency was moved under the purview of the Department of Homeland Security, a Cabinet-level position that was added after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. The Secret Service was sounding the alarm to Trump's acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf, who abruptly left on Jan. 12, 2021 after pledging to stay in office until Jan. 20. Wolf was never confirmed by the Senate for the post.
Wolf and acting deputy secretary Ken Cuccinelli both were found to have deleted text messages around Jan. 6, 2021.
It raises questions about whether Wolf was given the information by the Secret Service and if he passed it on to the White House, the Pentagon, Congress or any other law enforcement agencies.
It makes access to emails all the more important for the Justice Department's investigation.
