“Woodward and I have the docs,” CBS News’ Robert Costa tweeted Tuesday morning, alluding to the White House phone records and Donald Trump’s Presidential “Daily Diary” for January 6, 2021, the fateful day of the insurgency and assault on the United States Capitol and American democracy.
Costa, who used to work for The Washington Post, and Woodward, who now works for The Post, have been collaborating. Costa provided links to the White House phone records and the “Daily Diary” of the President.
They show a president who was on the phone from 8:23 a.m. to 11:06 a.m. – and then for a strange seven hours till 6:54 p.m.
As the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack compiles a thorough chronology of everything that transpired on that day, the logs and diaries might provide severe challenges for Donald Trump, the former president, and his senior advisers and friends.
Congressman Jim Jordan, for example, famously informed a reporter that he couldn’t recall when he spoke with President Barack Obama on January 6, whether it was before or after the insurgency. He spoke with Trump for 10 minutes, from 9:24 to 9:34 a.m., just before the Capitol assault.
Costa wrote on Twitter, “Bannon was at the Willard war room on January 5, working closely with Giuliani. They both spoke with Trump that night about how to push Pence to do what Trump wanted. Now, we know Bannon then spoke twice w/ Trump on the day of attack, and once again pushed Trump to pressure VP.”
Senator Josh Hawley’s fist pump has become an iconic emblem of the insurgency, and Trump instructed the White House operator to contact him. He then had a six-minute conversation with Rudy Giuliani. For 26 minutes, Stephen Miller, and on and on.
The record does not include House Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s widely known conversation with Trump, according to CBS’ Steven Portnoy.
Senator David Perdue (R-GA), who is currently running for governor of Georgia, was Trump’s penultimate call before the big gap.
After the assault on the Capitol, at 7:16 p.m., the White House operator informed Trump that there were “waiting calls” from Sen. Hawley and attorney Cleta Mitchell, who was on Trump’s allegedly illegal conversation to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
Investigators for the House select committee looking into the Jan. 6th insurgency, Gloria Borger and Jamie Gangel, have their work cut out for them as they try to dig down all of Donald Trump’s phone conversations before and during the disturbance that drove lawmakers running for their lives.
The previous president was known among his close aides for forcing them to use their cell phones to make and receive calls, which might lead the House committee to want even more phone records from Trump’s closest circle as they try to put together what happened in the White House that day.
Due to his proximity to the Oval Office, former White House employee Dan Scavino’s phone was frequently used by the one-term president. Scavino is presently fighting a subpoena for his Verizon phone records.
“The lawsuit — still in its earliest stage — has temporarily stopped the phone company from giving logs of his calls and subscriber information to the House,” the report notes.
CNN reports that former White House chief of staff John Kelly tried to bring order to the chaotic Oval Office by insisting on keeping phone logs, which resulted in a fight with Trump.
“When Gen. John Kelly became Trump’s chief of staff in July 2017, he tried to clean up the messy phone process inside the White House — and his boss hated it, according to a former White House official. Kelly tried to keep call logs and screen Trump’s calls, but the President bristled at the restrictions because he didn’t want Kelly to know with whom he was speaking, the former official said,” CNN is reported.
According to a former White House official, when Gen. John Kelly became Trump’s chief of staff in July 2017, he attempted to clean up the White House’s chaotic phone system, which his boss despised. Kelly attempted to retain phone logs and screen Trump’s calls, but the President resented the limits, claiming that he didn’t want Kelly to know who he was speaking with.
According to a person familiar with the situation, all calls during the previous administration were routed through official White House channels, including the residence, the switchboard, the Situation Room, and the signal operator. There was no way past the stringent regulations.
“It just didn’t happen,” the source said. “There was no circumventing that.” The source then added that most calls were by appointment.
Furthermore, according to the source, then-President Barack Obama would never have been allowed to make calls on the phone of an aide or Secret Service agent. “Heavens, no,” the insider stated emphatically.
