White House files obtained by the House of Representatives committee investigating the assault on Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021
show an omission in the record of the calls made that day by then-President Donald Trump
, according to the newspaper The New York Times and later confirmed by NBC News.
The committee found that Trump communicated with Republican congressmen after giving a speech near the White House in which he encouraged his supporters to demonstrate against the result of the presidential election in which he was defeated by Joe Biden.
According to the congressional investigation, Trump spoke with Senator Tommy Tuberville and Representative Kevin McCarthy;
both congressmen have confirmed the existence of these calls.
Former President Donald Trump at an event in Conroe, Texas, on January 29, 2022. Jason Fochtman / AP
McCarthy even mentioned that he was the first person to speak to Trump on the phone when the former president's violent supporters stormed Congress: "I was very clear when I called him," McCarthy said in an interview on Jan. 6, 2021.
[The Republican Party considers the attack on Capitol Hill to be a “legitimate political speech” made by “ordinary citizens”]
It is unknown if the absence of these call files is due to the fact that the former president used his personal telephone or that of his advisers to communicate or if they were improperly deleted.
This finding presents a new challenge in reconstructing Trump's role in the attack.
The former president has repeatedly refused to hand over official documents and to cooperate with the House committee investigating the assault.
Documents provided by Trump on the assault on Capitol Hill were altered, according to report
Feb. 1, 202202:05
Last month the Supreme Court rejected the former president's request to prevent the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) from turning over official documents from his administration to congressional investigators.
NARA this week asked the Justice Department to examine Trump's handling of White House records after recovering 15 boxes of official files from the former president's Mar-a-Lago, Florida, residence that they were not returned as required by law.
[Trump tried to seize the voting machines after his electoral defeat]
These could also include material classified as secret.
The information, released by The Washington Post, reveals that some files that the former president delivered in pieces would also have had to be rebuilt.
The Oversight Committee of the House of Representatives has launched an investigation on this Thursday.
The Presidential Records Act requires the preservation of documents such as letters, memos, emails, and all kinds of written communications related to the official duties of a president
Trump Divides Republicans by Falsely Claiming Vice President Mike Pence Could Have Overturned Election Results
Feb. 6, 202201:44
and.
Press reports have revealed that the former president has a habit of tearing up documents, since before his arrival at the White House.
A report from the Political portal in 2018 details how an official was in charge of taping the files that the then president destroyed.
[The panel investigating the Capitol storming spoke with former Attorney General Bill Barr about an order to intervene militarily in the election]
ia.
In addition, a new book by journalist Maggie Haberman recounts that White House officials routinely found files stuck in bathrooms in what would be an attempt to disappear important information.
On Thursday, through a statement, the president pronounced himself saying that this was "another false story" and that the attempt of a reporter to advertise with a "mostly fictitious" book