WASHINGTON (Reuters) – White House records show a gap of more than seven hours in former President Donald Trump’s official phone calls the day of the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, The Washington Post and CBS reported on Tuesday.
Logs turned over to the House panel investigating the attack showed no calls placed to or by Trump between 11:17 a.m. and 6:54 p.m. while his supporters violently rioted at the Capitol as lawmakers were set to certify Trump’s 2020 election loss, the news outlets reported.
The 11 pages of records turned over to lawmakers showed Trump talked to at least eight people by phone before the gap and 11 afterward, the Post and CBS said.
Representatives for the committee and Trump could not be immediately reached for comment on the report.
Extensive public reporting also cites multiple conversations Trump had on Jan. 6 with allies and lawmakers, prompting lawmakers to probe whether he communicated that day through unofficial back channels, the report said, citing two people familiar with the congressional investigation.
House leader Kevin McCarthy last year described talking to his fellow Republican during the rioting, saying he urged the president to call off his supporters and accept his defeat.
“I was very clear with the president when I called him,” McCarthy told CBS at the time. “This has to stop, and he has to go to the American public and tell them to stop this.”
The New York Times reported on Tuesday that congressional investigators along with federal prosecutors are focusing on Trump’s Dec. 19, 2020, Tweet in which he urged supporters to go to Washington on Jan. 6, saying it “will be wild.”
The House panel on Monday voted unanimously to seek “contempt of Congress” charges against Peter Navarro, a former trade adviser to Trump, and Daniel Scavino, who was a Trump’s deputy chief of staff.
(Writing by Susan Heavey; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Mark Porter)
