The House committee looking into the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol is asking for all documents and communications from Donald Trump's White House from the day of the riot.
The committee is asking for "all documents and communications within the White House on January 6, 2021" related to Trump's close advisers and family members. It is also asking for information about a rally held that day and Trump's own Twitter feed. It additionally asks for Trump's specific movements on that day and any communications, if they exist, from the White House Situation Room.
Phone logs may be requested from House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, who had been in touch with Trump from the Capitol on January 6. McCarthy dismissed the committee's investigation again as "so political."
When asked if he would turn over his own phone logs from that day, he said, "I told the American public who I talked to that day," referring to his television news appearances on January 6.
For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below.
The committee is demanding a trove of records from federal intelligence and law enforcement agencies, showing the sweep of the lawmakers' review of the deadly attack by a mob of Donald Trump supporters.
The request Wednesday seeks information about events leading up to the January 6 riot, including communication within the White House under then-President Trump and other agencies, and information about planning and funding for rallies held in Washington. Among them is an event at the Ellipse, near the White House, featuring remarks by Trump where he egged on a crowd of thousands before loyalists stormed the Capitol.
The requested documents are just the beginning of what is expected to be lengthy partisan and rancorous investigation into how the mob was able to infiltrate the Capitol and disrupt the certification of Democrat Joe Biden's presidential victory, inflicting the most serious assault on Congress in two centuries.
Committee members are also considering asking telecommunications companies to preserve phone records of several people, including members of Congress, to try to determine who knew what about the unfolding riot and when they knew it. With chants of "hang Mike Pence," the rioters sent the then–vice president and members of Congress running for their lives and did more than $1 million in damage, and wounded dozens of police officers.
Records requests are typically the starting point for investigations, and the committee is expected to conduct a wide-ranging review as it builds a public record detailing the chaos on January 6. That inquiry could take more than a year, until the end of the congressional session.
The demands are being made for White House records from the National Archives, along with material from the departments of Defense, Justice, Homeland Security and Interior, as well as the FBI and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
The committee is also seeking information about efforts within the Trump administration to push the president's baseless claims of election fraud and any efforts to try to overturn the results of November's election or to "impede the peaceful transfer of power."
The request for the National Archives and Records Administration is 10 pages long.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., is heading the committee, appointed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., after all but two Republicans opposed the creation of the 13-person panel.
The committee so far has heard from police officers who were at the Capitol on January 6. In emotional testimony, those officers spoke of how afraid and frustrated they were by the failure of law enforcement leaders to foresee the potential for violence and understand the scope of planning by the Trump backers.
Most in the GOP argued that the majority-Democratic committee would conduct a partisan inquiry. House Democrats originally attempted to create an evenly split, independent commission to investigate the insurrection, but that effort fell short when it was blocked by Senate Republicans.
Thompson did not identify the lawmakers whose records the committee would seek, but he has said officials would be contacting communication companies, social media platforms and other tech giants.
In a Fox News appearance Tuesday evening, Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., whose phone records may also be sought, said it was "an abuse of power" to investigate lawmakers.
Thompson, in a written statement, said the committee's work was rooted in apolitical fact-finding.
"Our Constitution provides for a peaceful transfer of power, and this investigation seeks to evaluate threats to that process, identify lessons learned and recommend laws, policies, procedures, rules, or regulations necessary to protect our republic in the future," he said.
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