The gap in White House call logs on Jan. 6, 2021, reflects former President Donald Trump’s typical phone habits and not a plot to avoid tracking, according to multiple sources.
Washington has been abuzz this week after the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol said it identified a nearly eight-hour gap in official White House phone call logs. The leak from the committee fueled speculation that Mr. Trump sought to keep his communications off the record during the riot.
Multiple sources familiar with Mr. Trump’s phone behavior and White House switchboard records told CNN that the more likely explanation is far less nefarious.
The experts said Mr. Trump placed calls through the White House switchboard while he was in the residence but rarely did so while he was elsewhere. The fact that the call logs do not show calls from the Oval Office on Jan. 6, 2021, is not unusual, they said.
The sources also said the six pages of White House switchboard records for Jan. 6, 2021, are complete “based on an official review of White House records.”
The committee leaked the story to news outlets said earlier this week about discovering the gap in the phone log records, which extended from approximately 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. among the official White House records turned over by the National Archives.
The committee has also issued requests for separate phone records and has spoken to more than 800 witnesses.
It has also obtained thousands of texts from then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, some of which the panel has released publicly.
Mr. Trump is known to have placed calls and sent text messages, including to Vice President Mike Pence, during the gap in official White House phone records.
After the identification of the gap, some had speculated that Mr. Trump had used a “burner phone” to avoid tracing, which Mr. Trump has denied.
“I have no idea what a burner phone is. To the best of my knowledge, I have never even heard the term,” Mr. Trump told several news outlets in a statement Monday.
And according to the sources who spoke with CNN, the gap in records more likely stems from the 1960s-era system for recording the president’s phone communications rather than a nefarious plot to usurp investigators.
• This story is based in part on wire service reports.
• Joseph Clark can be reached at jclark@washingtontimes.com.
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