US Capitol riot probe finds 8-hour gap in Trump calls

The records show that Trump had calls with at least eight people in the morning of the attack and 11 people that evening

White House records from the day of the attack on the US Capitol show a gap of almost eight hours in then-president Donald Trump's phone logs, US media reported Tuesday.

The 457-minute pause — from 11:17 am until 6:54 pm on January 6 last year — includes the period when the Capitol building was being stormed by a violent mob of Trump supporters, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post and CBS News.

The National Archives, the government agency that holds presidential documents, handed 11 pages of switchboard call logs and other records to the congressional select committee investigating the assault.

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They show that Trump had calls with at least eight people in the morning of the attack and 11 people that evening.

But there has been extensive reporting about phone conversations Trump had with allies in Congress during the rioting that don't appear in the record.

Investigators are looking into whether Trump used unofficial backchannels such as "burner phones" – cheap, hard-to-trace prepaid cell phones designed to be thrown away after use.

One unnamed member of the panel told the Post the committee is investigating a "possible coverup" 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 assault that "all hell is going to 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 House committee.

Rolling Stone magazine reported last November that organizers of the "Stop the Steal" rally before the assault allegedly communicated with high-ranking members of Trump's inner circle, using burner phones.

These figures included the former president's son Eric Trump, 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 the best of my knowledge I have never even 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 diary logging his phone calls, be preserved.

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

Some of the papers handed over had been "torn up by former President Trump" and taped back together, the Archives revealed, adding that it had also received a number of records that were still in pieces.

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

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