According to CBS News and the Washington Post, the White House records handed to the committee by the National Archives and Records Service do not include calls made or received by Mr. Trump between 11:17 a.m. and 6:54 p.m. – a period stretches from the moment he just urged the supporters gathered in the White House to march towards the Capitol until the time when the police regained control of the building of the American legislature. The lack of documentation for Mr. Trump’s phone calls during the worst attack on the Capitol since Lt. Gen. Robert Ross ordered it set on fire in 1814 is refuted by widespread public reports that the then President was no stranger to a mob of supporters. was trying to loot the building in hopes of stopping the certification of President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory. Trump is known to have made at least two phone calls during the uprising. The first was a mistake made on the cell phone of Utah Sen. Mike Lee in an attempt to speak with Tommy Tuberville of Alabama. Mr. Lee received the call shortly after the work was suspended from the upper room because the rioters had entered the Capitol. He then gave the phone to Mr. Tamberville, whom Trump allegedly urged to continue opposing the swing of ballots at the state electoral college despite the violence that led Tamberville to end the call because police told senators to from the Senate Hall. The second, a phone call with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, was described in a statement by Republican Rep. Jamie Herrera Beutler of Washington, D.C., who became part of the archive in Trump’s second referral trial. Herrera Beutler said Mr McCarthy had asked the then president to “publicly and violently cancel the uprising”, with Trump falsely claiming that the mob was made up of self-proclaimed “Antifa” or anti-fascist protesters. After Mr. McCarthy told Trump that the mob was made up of his people, Herrera Boitler said, “Trump replied, ‘Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.’ During his presidency, Mr. Trump was often known to use cell phones – his own or those of staff members, and even Secret Service agents – to make all kinds of calls, official and otherwise. Using non-governmental cell phones instead of the White House telephone system would create a gap in the White House’s logs, but other files known as the president’s “diary” are supposed to reflect any calls made or received by the president which could be omitted from the distribution board files. The report also states that selected members of the commission are investigating whether the lack of official records documenting Mr. Trump’s communications during the attack is the result of a “possible cover-up” by Mr. Trump and his advisers. In particular, the commission is investigating whether Mr. Trump or his advisers used disposable telephones, the so-called “caustic” telephones, to avoid keeping official records of the president’s communications. Another source, a “person close to the committee”, said the gap in telephone records was “of great interest” to the nine-member committee. In a statement, Trump said he “had no idea what a burning phone was,” adding that “he had never heard the term” in the “best [his] the knowledge”. A spokesman for Mr. Trump added that he had assumed that all his calls were properly documented.
