According to bombshell, reporting from POLITICO, Trump-appointed senior Secret Service official Anthony Ornato — who has been at the epicenter of severe scrutiny from the January 6th House Select Committee in connection to their investigation into the violent Capitol attack and, more specifically, in direct connection to the Secret Service scandal surrounding thousands of wrongfully deleted text messages — is retiring, effectively leaving his high-ranking position in the government agency, amid the mounting scandal.
POLITICO’s Kyle Cheney reported on the thundering news, “The agency confirmed Ornato’s retirement, which was announced internally earlier in the day. He’s the latest high-level official in the Secret Service to announce his departure in recent weeks. Spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said Ornato — who joined the Secret Service in 1997 — became eligible for retirement earlier this year and leaves the agency in good standing.”
“Ornato’s role in the Trump White House made national headlines after explosive testimony by former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who said he had briefed Trump and other White House officials about armed elements within Trump’s rally crowd on the morning of Jan. 6, 2021,” the breaking report goes on to read. “Although Ornato quickly signaled he was willing to testify in response to Hutchinson’s account, he has yet to appear for a new interview with the select committee, according to two people familiar with the discussions.”
Ornato has served as one of the high-ranking Secret Service officials to infamously and publicly dispute claims made by former Mark Meadows White House aide, Cassidy Hutchinson, in her explosive testimony to the J6 House Committee during their last public hearing, when she alleged that then-President Donald Trump physically lunged at his Secret Service agent in The Beast and attempted to grab the steering wheel in fuming anger upon learning that he would not be permitted to join his rabid, violent mob of supporters at the Capitol building on January 6th, 2020.
Stay up-to-date with the latest news!
Subscribe and start recieving our daily emails.
Cheney goes on to report, “Ornato’s departure comes shortly after the director of the Secret Service, James Murray, announced his own intention to retire but put it on hold amid expanding investigations into the agency’s conduct in the days surrounding the Capitol attack. The Department of Homeland Security inspector general is investigating the deletion of thousands of text messages by dozens of officials as part of what the agency has described as a phone upgrade. Those missing messages include those sent on and around Jan. 6.”
Though Ornato has certainly been the center of the Secret Service text message scandal, he’s far from the only Trump-era official who’s facing severe and mounting scrutiny over the wrongfully deleted communications, as the likes of former DHS Secretary Chad Wolf and former acting Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli also face the wrath of the J6 House Select Committee.
Read the full bombshell report from POLITICO here.
Featured image via screen capture
