Capitol riot investigation finds gap in Trump calls

White House files from the day of the US Capitol takeover show a nearly eight-hour gap in phone records of then-President Donald Trump, US media reported Tuesday.

(Read: Trump ‘probably’ committed a serious crime by obstructing Congress)

The 457-minute break, from 11:17 a.m. to 18:54 p.m. local time, on January 6, 2021, includes the period when the Capitol building was stormed by a violent mob of Trump supportersaccording to documents obtained by Washington Post and the chain CBS.

(You are interested in: Committee says that Trump broke the law by trying to reverse the election)

The National Archivesthe government agency that keeps presidential documents, turned over 11 pages of call logs from the telephone exchange and other records to the special congressional committee investigating the assault.

They show that Trump had calls with at least eight people on the morning of the attack and 11 people that night. But there have been many reports of phone conversations Trump had with allies in Congress during the unrest that don’t appear on the record.

Investigators are looking into whether Trump used unofficial back channels, such as “throwaway phones,” cheap, hard-to-trace prepaid cellphones designed to be thrown away after use.

An anonymous panel member told the Post that the committee is looking into a “potential cover-up” of the White House record.

The documents show that former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, who told listeners of his podcast the day before the attack that “hell will break loose tomorrow,” spoke with Trump twice on January 6.

Bannon was indicted last year by the Justice Department for refusing to cooperate with the congressional committee.

Magazine rolling stone reported last November that the organizers of the rally “Stop the steal“(Stop the robbery, alluding to the 2020 presidential election) allegedly communicated with high-ranking members of Trump’s inner circle prior to the robbery, using burner phones.

These people included the former president’s son, Eric Trump, his daughter-in-law and former campaign official, Lara Trump., and then chief of staff Mark Meadows. “I have no idea what a burner phone is, to my knowledge, I’ve never heard the term,” Trump said in a statement to the Post.

The Presidential Records Act requires that written communications related to the president’s official duties, such as emails, memos, and the daily record of his telephone calls, be preserved.

Trump lost his bid last month to stop the Archives from releasing visitor logs, speech drafts and other White House documents to the House committee investigating the unrest.

Some of the documents handed over had been “torn up by former President Trump” and glued back together, the Archives revealed, adding that they had also received a number of records that were still torn to pieces.

The House special committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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