The House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol building has discovered significant gaps in the White House’s telephone logs during the hours that the attack was unfolding.
Records sent from the National Archives to the January 6 commission show almost no phone calls to or from TrumpSources who spoke to them said that the Capitol breach occurred during this time. The New York Times. This is significant as the select committee knows that Trump was calling during this period.
On January 6, 2021 Trump met directly with congressional legislators, urging them not to approve of the 2020 presidential election. The former president also had heated conversations with Kevin McCarthy (R.California), the House Minority Leader. expressed frustration that Trump wasn’t doing anything about theA mob of his loyalists descend violently on the U.S. Capitol Building
There is no evidence to suggest that the phone records were altered or deleted. It has been well documented that it was. Trump often used a personal cell phone device or the cell phones of his subordinatesBoth of these would not have been recorded in the White House call logs.
This is especially apparent in light of recent reports. Trump repeatedly destroyed papers during his time as president. Trump transported classified information to his Mar-a-Lago estate at Palm Beach, Florida, shortly after his resignation from the presidency.
Although the omission in the phone records will make the committee’s work more difficult, members of the January 6 commission have said that they believe they will come by the information through other means in the near future. The select committee has subpoenaed the phone records of many individuals in Trump’s inner circle, including the records of his son, Eric Trump, and of Kimberly Guilfoyle, the fiancée of Trump’s other son, Donald Trump Jr.
“Whether it is the absence of data or phone logs or willing testimony, inevitably, we have different sources to get that information because these are conversations that require more than one participant,” said Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Florida), a member of the commission. “So even if there is one node that isn’t forthcoming, there are inevitably other points of information that we can use to build a more fulsome picture of what happened on January 6.”
There’s also the possibility that the committee could subpoena the phone records of Trump’s personal cell phone. Although the panel hasn’t yet taken moves to do so, committee chair Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Mississippi) has said that the option is still on the table.
