The former Democratic-led House Select Committee on Jan. 6 has been accused of deleting password-protected files containing vital information.

These files, crucial to the investigation of the Jan. 6 events at the United States Capitol, were allegedly deleted just days before the Republican party gained control of the House of Representatives, as The Blaze reported.

Discrepancy in Data Transfer

Sources familiar with the internal workings of the committee have disclosed to Fox News that the committee, under the leadership of Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, was obligated to hand over all pertinent documents from its probe into the Capitol events to the new Republican-led committee after the 2022 midterm elections.

Rep. Barry Loudermilk (GA-11), head of the House Administration Committee's Oversight Subcommittee, was informed by Thompson that over four terabytes of archived data would be transferred.

However, it appears that the new Republican committee received less than the promised amount.

Intensified Republican Investigation

The new panel, spearheaded by House Speaker Mike Johnson (LA-04), is intensively examining the security failures of Jan. 6 and the actions of the previous committee.

Loudermilk has disclosed that additional resources will be allocated to this investigation.

A critical part of this inquiry involves employing a digital forensics team to ascertain the nature of the information that was deleted.

The team reportedly discovered that 117 encrypted files were removed by the Democratic-led committee shortly before the handover deadline.

Contents of Deleted Files and Recovery Efforts

Loudermilk, in a letter to Thompson, highlighted the committee's failure to archive all necessary records as mandated by House Rules.

He noted that specific interviews and depositions were sent to the White House and Department of Homeland Security but were not appropriately archived.

The forensic team managed to retrieve numerous digital records from hard drives archived by the Select Committee, including a file revealing the identity of an individual whose testimony was not properly archived.

Loudermilk further emphasized that access to many of these recovered files is hindered as they are password-protected.

He has demanded that Thompson provide a list of passwords for all such files to ensure proper archiving.

Additionally, the Republican-led committee has not received testimony from the White House and the Department of Homeland Security, which was supposedly in the possession of the former committee.

A separate letter was sent to the White House general counsel by Loudermilk, requesting the unedited and unredacted transcripts by Jan. 24.

In a statement to Fox News, Loudermilk asserted, "It's obvious that Pelosi's Select Committee went to great lengths to prevent Americans from seeing certain documents produced in their investigation. It also appears that Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney intended to obstruct our Subcommittee by failing to preserve critical information and videos as required by House rules."