Day 433

[matt (Matt Kiser)]

1/ A federal judge asserted that Trump “more likely than not” committed felony obstruction in his effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election. “Based on the evidence, the Court finds it more likely than not that President Trump corruptly attempted to obstruct the Joint Session of Congress on January 6, 2021,” U.S. District Court Judge David Carter wrote, ordering the release of 101 emails from Trump adviser John Eastman to the Jan. 6 committee. The committee had subpoenaed Eastman’s university email account, which he used to send key legal memos aimed at overturning Biden’s victory, but Eastman sued to prevent the committee from obtaining his emails from the school, claiming attorney-client privilege. “The illegality of the plan was obvious,” Carter wrote, rejecting Eastman’s effort to shield the documents, saying Eastman and Trump “launched a campaign to overturn a democratic election, an action unprecedented in American history […] it was a coup in search of a legal theory.” The ruling has no direct role in whether Trump will be charged criminally. (Washington Post / CNN / New York Times / Politico / ABC News / Associated Press / NBC News)

---

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2022/03/28/day-433/

[Windthin (David Bythewood)]

White House records turned over to House show 7-hour gap in Trump phone log on Jan. 6

White House records turned over to House show 7-hour gap in Trump phone log...

Internal White House records from the day of the attack on the U.S. Capitol that were turned over to the House select committee show a gap in President Donald Trump’s phone logs of seven hours and 37 minutes, including the period when the building was being violently assaulted, according to documents obtained by CBS News’ chief election & campaign correspondent Robert Costa and The Washington Post’s associate editor Bob Woodward.

The lack of an official White House notation of any calls placed to or by Trump for 457 minutes — from 11:17 a.m. to 6:54 p.m. — on Jan. 6, 2021 means there is no record of the calls made by Trump as his supporters descended on the U.S. Capitol, battled overwhelmed police and forcibly entered the building, prompting lawmakers and Vice President Mike Pence to flee for safety.

The 11 pages of records — which consist of the president’s official daily diary and the White House switchboard call log — were turned over by the National Archives earlier this year to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack.

The records show that Trump was active on the phone for part of the day, documenting conversations that he had with at least eight people in the morning and 11 people that evening. The gap also stands in stark contrast to the extensive public reporting about phone conversations he had with allies during the attack.

The House panel is now investigating whether Trump communicated that day through backchannels, phones of aides or personal disposable phones, known as “burner phones,” according to two people with knowledge of the probe, who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information. The committee is also scrutinizing whether it received the full log from that day.

The records show that former White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon — who said on his Jan. 5 podcast that “all hell is going to break loose tomorrow” — spoke with Trump twice on Jan. 6.

A spokesman for the committee declined to comment.

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

A Trump spokesperson said that Trump had nothing to do with the records and had assumed any and all of his phone calls were recorded and preserved.

For more, read The Washington Post story co-written by Costa and Woodward.

Jan. 6 White House logs given to House show 7-hour gap in Trump calls