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- White House call logs from January 6, 2021 show a 7-hour gap, CBS and the Washington Post reported.
- The January 6 Committee is probing whether Trump may have used aides’ phones or burner phones.
- Here’s the full timeline of Trump’s known phone calls as recorded in official White House records.
Reconstructing the timeline of President Donald Trump’s phone calls, communications, and movements is a key focus of the House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection.
The Washington Post and CBS obtained and reported on White House call logs and records secured by the Committee on Tuesday, documents that provide the most comprehensive timeline of Trump’s known phone calls before and after the riots at the US Capitol.
But the official White House call logs contain a more than seven-hour gap between 11:17 am and 6:54 pm, a crucial stretch of time during which Trump openly pressured Vice President Mike President to overturn the 2020 election results in Congress, the president’s supporters violently breached the Capitol, and Trump put out multiple tweets and videos about the events.
Here’s the full timeline of Trump’s communications on January 6 as documented in official White House call logs and records obtained by the January 6 Committee and reported by the Post and CBS.
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Trump’s documented phone calls on January 6, 2021:
- 8:34 am: Trump speaks to lawyer Kurt Olsen, who played a key role in legal efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
- 8:37 am: Trump speaks to adviser Steve Bannon.
- 8:45 am: Trump speaks to lawyer Rudy Giuliani.
- 8:56 am: Trump returns a call from White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.
- 9:02 am: Trump places a call to Pence and leaves a message.
- 9:24 am: Trump speaks to Rep. Jim Jordan for 10 minutes, a call first reported by CNN.
- 9:41 am: Trump speaks to Giuliani for six minutes.
- 9:52 am: Trump speaks to senior adviser Stephen Miller for 26 minutes.
- 10:32 am: Trump briefly speaks to bodyman and personal assistant Nick Luna.
- 10:40 am: Trump attempts to reach Sen. Mitch McConnell and leaves a message (There’s no record that McConnell returned his call). Trump attempts to reach Sen. Josh Hawley, but is unsuccessful.
- 11:04 am: Trump speaks to Sen. David Perdue.
- 11:17 am: Trump speaks to “an unidentified person” for an unknown period of time.
AP Photo/John Minchillo
Trump spoke at the “Save America” rally at the Ellipse at noon and returned to the White House at 1:19 pm, according to White House records. After the Capitol was breached at around 2 pm, the next record in the president’s daily diary is Trump going to the Rose Garden at 4:03 pm to record a video telling his supporters to “go home in love and peace.”
Trump “returned to the Oval Office” at 4:07 pm, according to the records, and “went to the Second Floor Residence” at 6:27 pm.
- 6:54 pm: Trump asks to return a call from White House deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino.
- 7:01 pm: Trump speaks with White House counsel Pat Cipollone for six minutes.
- 7:08: Trump speaks with Scavino for seven minutes.
- 7:16 pm: White House switchboard informs Trump of pending calls from Olsen, Hawley, Sen. Bill Hagerty, and lawyers Mark Martin and Cleta Mitchell.
- 7:17 pm: Trump speaks to Olsen for 11 minutes.
- 7:30 pm: Trump speaks to Martin for nine minutes.
- 7:40 pm: Trump speaks to Olsen again for 10 minutes.
- 7:53 pm: Trump speaks to Mitchell for two minutes.
- 8:39 pm: Trump speaks to Giuliani for nine minutes.
- 9:14 pm: Trump places a call to White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany.
- 9:23 pm: Trump speaks to adviser Jason Miller for 18 minutes.
- 10:19 pm: Trump and Bannon speak again for seven minutes.
- 11:23 pm: Trump speaks to John McEntee, director of presidential personnel, for 17 minutes.
Several of Trump’s previously reported communications from January 6, including a call with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Trump attempting to reach Sen. Tommy Tuberville but calling Sen. Mike Lee instead, do not appear in the official White House call logs, CBS and the Post noted.
The Committee is probing whether Trump may have used aides’ phones, burner phones, and other back channels to place and receive calls on January 6 that aren’t documented in the official White House call logs and records from that day, sources told the Post and CBS.
Trump, for his part, said in a statement to the outlets that “I have no idea what a burner phone is, to the best of my knowledge I have never even heard the term.”
But the January 6 Committee is hunting down a “possible coverup” of the full record of Trump’s contacts, one member on the Committee told the Post and CBS, with another source close to the investigation describing the seven-hour gap as being of “intense interest” to the lawmakers.
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