Donald Trump was on the phone at least several time during the seven hour and 37-minute gap in White House records of his calls while his supporters were attacking the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. In response to speculation that in addition to personal phones of people around him he may have used disposable “burner phones,” Trump denied knowing what a burner phone even is.
Not so fast, though. Former national security adviser John Bolton says that Trump had mentioned burner phones to him more than once, and, in filings for Trump’s lawsuit against his niece Mary Trump, attorneys referred repeatedly to burner phones. Everyone knows Trump lies—and not knowing what the phone he was using to avoid official records was called wouldn’t mean he didn’t use one—but it’s worth having each specific lie on the record.
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Whatever phone Trump was using, the real question is who he was talking to and what he was saying to them as his supporters broke down doors and windows, attacked law enforcement officers, and roamed the hallways chanting “Hang Mike Pence.” Reports have established that Trump called Sen. Mike Lee (looking for Sen. Tommy Tuberville) and spoke with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, responding to McCarthy’s plea that he stop the violence by saying, “Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.” Other reports have witnesses describing Trump on the phone at other times throughout the day. But those calls aren’t reflected in official White House records, and it’s unlikely that even getting the records for Trump’s personal cell phone would complete the picture.
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While Trump was known to frequently use phones other than the White House landlines despite the security risks of doing so, the hours on Jan. 6 during which he was definitely at the White House and definitely talking on the phone but not on White House phones stand out: There’s a reason he stopped using those phones, with their official records of who he talked to and when, for those hours. The gap in his call records heightens the urgency of investigators finding out who he was talking to and about what, because it sure looks like he knew those were conversations he didn’t want a record of. Just like he tore up official papers or even flushed them down the toilet. Just like he left the White House with official documents, including classified ones.
That was the end of Trump’s time in the White House: a coup attempt by a sore loser and the supporters he duped into believing the election was stolen rather than lost. Four years earlier, Trump arrived in the White House in 2017 after efforts by Russia to help install him there. And now, during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Russian state television is openly cheerleading for Trump’s return to the White House, offering up lines of attack connecting Hunter Biden to conspiracy theories about biolabs in Ukraine.
The Jan. 6 select committee needs a full record of Trump’s calls from that day. And come 2024, the Biden administration cannot hold back on any U.S. intelligence about Russian efforts to help Trump win, as the Obama administration did in 2016. You can’t sacrifice the nation’s future just to avoid looking partisan if you investigate a likely criminal.
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