Attorney General Merrick Garland told reporters that the deleted Secret Service texts are within the Justice Department’s investigative scope, but was careful not to reveal information about the specific case.

Garland took questions at a press conference on reproductive rights Tuesday afternoon, where he was asked about Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph Cuffari and the deepening scandal around the fact that Secret Service text messages from Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, 2021 were deleted by the agency after they were told to preserve them.

Garland very carefully responded to grilling about a possible role for the Justice Department in investigating the scandal and skirted questions about Cuffari.

Without commenting on the specific case, Garland made clear that any criminal acts related to the text messages would be within his department’s scope:

REPORTER: I would like to ask you about this call for lawmakers that the Justice Department now get involved in this increasingly kind of concerning news about the missing texts that have been found from the Secret Service around January six. Do you expect the Justice Department to get involved and do you have confidence in the current DHS inspector general who is investigating this?

AG GARLAND: All right. So as a general matter, any allegations of wrongdoing about inspector generals are handled by what we call CIGIE, which is the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency. That’s the way those kind of allegations are handled. And without commenting on this particular case, needless to say, the Justice Department’s job is to investigate allegations of violations of the criminal law, including allegations regarding matters involving the scope of inspector generals.

REPORTER: Are you concerned about the missing texts, though, I mean, is that something that’s what.

AG GARLAND: We’re not going to talk about particular cases with respect to our own investigations. We will pursue all facts as far as we need to pursue them, and will pursue them with all the tools we have under the criminal law.

Watch above via NBC News.

The post WATCH: AG Garland Says Deleted Secret Service Texts Are Within DoJ Investigative Scope When Pressed About Scandal first appeared on Mediaite.

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