The Capitol riots committee is missing eight hours of Trump calls.

Ben Burke Producer

Capitol riots committee missing eight hours of Trump Jan. 6 phone calls

Mar 29, 2022

Ben Burke Producer

By Ben Burke (Producer)

According to a person familiar with the House committee investigation into last January’s Capitol riots, the committee has found a roughly eight-hour gap in phone calls involving former President Donald Trump on Jan. 6, 2021. The person spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity, saying the gap starts at a little after 11 a.m., and ends at about 7 p.m.

While the source said the gap involves White House phone calls, it’s unclear if White House cellphone calls are included. House investigators are looking at whether former President Trump was communicating during that gap through other means. This could include a personal cellphone, someone else’s phone passed to Trump by an aide or a burner phone. The Capitol riots committee is also receiving records from the National Archives and other sources, which could reveal more information about Trump’s calls.

It’s widely known that some of the calls in that eight-hour gap include conversations with Republican lawmakers. Last January, Rep. Jaime Lynn Herrera Beutler (R-WA) said House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) had told her about a conversation he had with Trump on Jan. 6. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) also said he talked to Trump in the missing window of phone calls.

The revelation of the missing Trump calls came a day after the Capitol riots committee voted to hold two more former Trump advisers in contempt for refusing to comply with subpoenas issued to them. The video above includes clips from a Monday night committee meeting. Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino have joined longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and ex-Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark. Bannon and Meadows have had their contempt referrals approved by the full House, but only Bannon has been indicted by the Justice Department.

“Mr. Scavino worked directly with President Trump to spread President Trump’s false message that the election was stolen, and to recruit Americans to come to Washington with the false promise that January 6th would be an opportunity to ‘take back their country,’” Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) said in her opening statements before Monday night’s vote. “Mr. Navarro is also a key witness. He’s written a book boasting about his role in planning and coordinating the activity of January 6th, and yet, he does not have the courage to testify here. We have many questions for Mr. Navarro—including about his communications with Roger Stone and Steve Bannon regarding the planning for January 6th.”

Rep. Bennie Thompson, (D) Chair, House Select Committee on January 6 Attack: “In the lead up to January 6th, Mr Scavino and Mr Navarro were both government employees. They worked in the White House. They drew salaries paid by the taxpayers. They had conversations with the ex-president. So now they’re saying they won’t answer any of our questions because of executive privilege. There are a couple of big problems with that argument. First, generally speaking, executive privilege doesn’t belong to just any White House official. It belongs to the president. Here, President Biden has been clear that executive privilege does not prevent cooperation with the select committee by either Mr Scavino or Mr. Navarro. And while the ex-president’s reportedly has raised privilege concerns when it comes to Mr. Scavino and Mr. Navarro’s case, nobody has even tried to invoke privilege, except Mr. Navarro himself. That’s just not the way it works.”

Rep. Liz Cheney, (R) Vice Chair, House Select Committee on January 6 Attack: “The committee has many questions for Mr. Scavino about his political social media work for President Trump, including his interactions with an online forum called The Donald, and with QAnon, a bizarre and dangerous cult. President Trump, working with Mr. Scavino, successfully spread distrust for our courts, which had repeatedly found no basis to overturn the election. And Trump’s stolen election campaign succeeded in provoking the violence on January 6th. On this point, there is no doubt.”

“Mr. Navarro is also a key witness. He’s written a book boasting about his role in planning and coordinating the activity of January 6th. And yet he does not have the courage to testify here. We have many questions for Mr. Navarro, including about his communications with Roger Stone and Steve Bannon regarding the planning for January 6th. As Judge Carter concluded today, quote based on the evidence, the court finds it more likely than not that President Trump corruptly attempted to obstruct the joint session of Congress on January 6th, 2021.”