Columnist: Bombshell report on missing call logs could make it easier for Jan. 6 committee to get records from Trump allies
Nearly eight hours are missing from White House call logs for the period when Donald Trump's supporters mobbed the U.S. Capitol -- raising new questions about the president and his inner circle.
Documents turned over by the National Archives to the House select committee don't account for the period between just after 11 a.m. to nearly 7 p.m., although the former president reportedly called at least one Republican senator asking to delay the election certification as the violence raged, reported the Washington Post.
“He was using the leverage of the violent insurrection to keep the inside political coup against Pence going,” said Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-MD), a member of the Jan. 6 committee. “Most everyone not cooperating with the committee is helping shield Trump from public disclosure about what happened during that period."
But the select committee might already have records of those missing calls because they have subpoenaed phone records from some key players, and the lengthy gap in White House call logs will strengthen lawmakers' case to obtain phone records from other members of Congress or Trump allies.
"The committee is debating whether to subpoena members of Congress such as [House minority leader Kevin] McCarthy (R-CA) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), who also talked to Trump on Jan. 6," wrote Post columnist Greg Sargent. "The source close to the committee tells me the missing phone logs might strengthen the case internally for subpoenaing them, because there should be more pressure on those lawmakers to testify about these calls with Trump."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/03/29/trump-missing-phone-logs-key-takeaways/https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/04/politics/jim-jordan-trump-january-6/index.htmlHandwritten notes may reveal 'unknown person' in last Trump call before mysterious seven-hour gap
Handwritten notes in a previously released document from the National Archives may reveal the identity of the "unknown person" who was the last reported call made by Donald Trump before the Jan. 6 insurrection.
The National Archives turned over White call logs to the House select committee, which the Washington Post obtained and found a seven-hour, 37-minute gap in calls between 11:17 a.m., when the call was made to the unidentified individual, and 6:54 p.m., when Trump instructed the operator to call aide Dan Scavino.
However, handwritten notes on another White House document shows Trump called then-Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) at 11:17 a.m. -- three minutes before his final call to then-vice president Mike Pence, which has been previously reported but was not recorded in the call logs turned over to the committee.
Kyle Cheney
@kyledcheneyBut the omissions are the key, as they point out. Calls we know occurred that are not on this list:
-Final call with Pence (11:20am)
-Later call with Jordan
-Heated with McCarthy
-Call with Lee/Tuberville
NOTE: The 11:17am call to an “unidentified” person appears to be Kelly LOEFFLER, based on this previously released document from the National Archives.https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.841840/gov.uscourts.cacd.841840.164.13.pdf
The logs obtained by the Post show Trump also spoke with then-Sen. David Perdue (R-GA) on Jan. 6, a day after each Georgia Republican lost runoff elections to Democratic challengers.
Loeffler had promised Trump two days earlier at a campaign rally that she would object to certification of Joe Biden's election win but changed her mind after the Capitol riot, but through a quirk in Georgia election law Perdue's term ended Jan. 3, 2021, so he was no longer in Congress.
Other previously reported phone calls that did not show up on the White House logs include a phone call with Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), a heated exchange with House minority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and a conversation with Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL).https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/status/15087699996698992Bob Woodward: Unlikely that 'telephone addict' Trump didn’t call anyone for 7 hours during Jan. 6 riotSpeaking to CNN on Tuesday, Bob Woodward explained that former President Donald Trump "is a telephone addict," and any idea that he didn't speak to anyone for seven hours is "unlikely."
Paperwork revealed by Woodward and Robert Costa in the Washington Post showed more than 7 hours and 30 minutes in which Trump's phone calls were not logged. It's prompting questions about whether Trump or his allies were using burner phones or other cell phones to keep any communication off the record.
"What's so important what the Jan. 6 committee is doing is very aggressive effort to talk to everyone, get every piece of paper, chase it down like a reporter who has time," Woodward explained. "And I got to know from very well during the 2020 campaign when he would -- I was talking to him and we did 17 interviews, he would call any time. And he is a telephone addict, and the idea that nothing happened in the afternoon on the phone Jan. 6 is as unlikely as the sun not rising, quite frankly."
Host John King cited reports from others explaining that Trump frequently would use other people's phones or randomly ask for someone to hand him a cell phone.
"Yes, but they'll figure it out or they'll get parts of it," said Woodward about the committee. "And it is -- I remember talking to Trump one afternoon. I called him. I had some questions. This is in 2020 before the election. And he said, 'Oh, I can't talk. I have 20 generals waiting downstairs.' And then he talked for 25 minutes. You almost couldn't get him off the phone, and it would appear any time. So, to have seven hours and 37 minutes' void, where, in the morning, he's talking to ten people, in the evening he's talking to 12 people and then there are calls that we don't know about that didn't go through?"
Legal analysts have warned that intentionally hiding calls using other phones could show a "consciousness of guilt."
See the interview below:
