the actions of the inspector general. he sat on the stuff for months and months and months as well. and now, he has ordered the department to stop the forensic analysis of the phones, which we need. we need that to happen. that was january 6th committee member zoe lofgren, voicing her concerns about the department homeland security inspector general, after it was revealed that he knew of the leaked secret service texts, promised before he reported it to congress. now, we are learning new revelations in the washington post that earlier this year, quote, staff at the inspector generals office plan to contact all dhs agencies, offering to have data specialists help retrieve messages from their phones, according to two government whistleblowers who provided reports to congress. but later that month, the inspector general s office decided it was not collecting any, or reviewing any agency
government whistleblowers who provided reports to congress. but later that month, the inspector general s office decided it was not collecting any, or reviewing any agency phone, according to three people briefed on the decision. it led to top democrats renewing their calls for the dhs watchdog, to step down in a new letter sent today by congresswoman carroll maloney, the head of the oversight committee, and congressman benny thompson, the head of the homeland security committee. joining me now is one of the reporters who broke that story, the dhs inspector general, washington post investigative reporter carol leonnig. she is one of the foremost experts on the secret service and the author of the book, zero fail: the rise and fall of the secret service. so, carroll, i can t help but understand, i was trying to understand, at what point was,
that this was going on. if it was going on. it was happening in such small numbers that it was more or less negligible and, of course, what we hear now, 50,000, and the show-up rate is such a small number. that s almost the exact same percentage of those showing up for court dates when they come into the u.s. for their asylum claims because we know if you had a valid claim you are going to want to show up for court. want to show up at dhs or ice facility because you get legal status in the u.s. what we do know is the vast majority never qualify. that s why you see these dismal show up rates. steve: one other story i want you to respond. to say there is a story now that apparently a couple of government whistleblowers who were volunteers at the child migrant facility at fort bliss, they have come forward and they said that the government, the administration had this massive cover-up. we saw those thousands of kids in that facility and we said at the time it s got to be a super
involved in this, says they could call the whistleblower. is there any chance that they could be successful? they could try, but you re really playing with fire here. in the corporate world, there are laws like sar baines auxley who provides protection for whistleblowers. do government whistleblowers have those same protections as corporate whistleblowers? you have protection with retaliation. you don t have protection against getting subpoenaed, so they could try this. but i think they re really playing with fire because the perception could be that they re outing this person not just because this person has knowledge but as a retaliation saying, we re going to make an example of him or her or anybody else who tries the same thing. and senator graham said
governed by the people, not a monarchy. new jersey senator cory booker also weighed in on the wall, he did it on twitter as well, writing quote: diverting military funds for a vanity project is exactly who donald trump is. i will continue to fight back and join with those challenging this wrong and misguided decision. it s also likely to come up this week when democrats hoping to take on the president in 2020 meet for their second debate, this one happening in detroit. reporting in washington, mark meredith, fox news. jon: a top government watchdog has joined whistleblowers in rebuking customs and border protection for failing to collect dna from detained migrants to be checked against the fbi s database for violent crimes. chief intelligence correspondent catherine herridge has this exclusive report. we have a great tool that was mandated by and approved by congress as a law, and we re not using it. reporter: three government whistleblowers are speaking out alleging a homeland sec