White House logs show unexplained gap in Trump Jan. 6 call record

White House records from 6 January 2021 show an unexplained gap of more than seven hours in the record of former President Donald Trump's communications, the Washington Post and CBS reported on Tuesday.

The records obtained by the House of Representatives committee investigating the Capitol riot showed no calls placed to or by Trump between 11:17 a.m. and 6:54 p.m., a span of time that includes the assault on the building by his supporters.

The 11 pages of records showed that Trump talked to at least eight people by phone before the gap and 11 afterward, the Post and CBS said.

Extensive public reporting also cites several conversations Trump held on Jan. 6 with allies and lawmakers, which caused investigators to investigate whether he communicated that day through unofficial back channels or a disposable phone known as a "burner phone."

In a statement, Trump said, "I have no idea what a burner phone is, to the best of my knowledge I have never even heard the term."

This came a day after a judge ruled that Trump "more likely than not" committed a crime by trying to pressure his vice president, Mike Pence, to obstruct Congress and overturn the outcome of the disputed November 2020 election.

District Judge David Carter in Los Angeles ruled on Monday that the committee probing the riot has a right to see emails written to Trump by one of his then-lawyers, John Eastman, according to Reuters.

The judge said that Eastman, the lawyer charged with drafting the strategy for the January 6 certification, must turn over most documents he is withholding from the committee.

The Democratic-led committee is expected to make a formal request to the US Justice Department that it consider charging Trump. The House earlier this month said it believed Trump might have committed multiple felonies.

'Cowboys for Trump' founder guilty of breaching US Capitol in win for prosecutors

A New Mexico county commissioner who founded a group called "Cowboys for Trump" was found guilty by a judge on Tuesday of breaching the US Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021 riot.

During the riot, Trump supporters occupied the US Capitol while lawmakers were in the process of reviewing the certification of state electors which indicated Joe Biden's victory. Some Trump supporters had hoped that this process could have resulted in some of the electors being disqualified, thus overturning the outcome of the presidential election.

Meanwhile, the White House said it will not assert executive privilege for testimony by Trump's daughter and son-in-law and former advisers, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, before the committee.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, communications director Kate Bedingfield said on Tuesday that Biden has been clear "the constitutional protections of executive privilege should not be used to shield from Congress or the public information about an attack on the Constitution itself."

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