Former US President Donald Trump’s phone records related to the 6 January Capitol riots could be among those requested by a congressional committee probing the events, CNN has cited unnamed sources as saying.
The sources claimed that apart from the ex-POTUS’ records, those of his daughter and former White House adviser Ivanka, and his sons Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump, were likely among the latest requests for preservation.
This comes after the House of Representatives’ 6 January investigation committee led by Democrat Bennie Thompson told 35 telecommunications, email, and social media companies to preserve records that could be “relevant” to the panel’s investigation into the deadly attack on the US Capitol.
The requests have already been sent to such telecommunications giants as AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and US Cellular.
A mob of supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump fight with members of law enforcement at a door they broke open as they storm the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, U.S., January 6, 2021.
© REUTERS / Leah Millis
Additionally, messages went out to a spate of social media companies, including Facebook Inc, Reddit, TikTok, Twitter Inc, and YouTube.
“The Select Committee is at this point gathering facts, not alleging wrongdoing by any individual”, a panel spokesman said in a statement on Monday.
The statement followed CNBC reporting that the letters of request ask the recipients to save information they may have about people who have been “charged with crimes associated with the [6 January] attack” by the Department of Justice, as well as people who were “involved in organising, funding, or speaking” at the rallies in Washington that promoted “objecting to the certification of the electoral college votes”.
The list of names to be submitted to the telecoms firms — including GOP members Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz and Mo Brooks — is reportedly still evolving.
Сapitol Riots
Democrats blamed then-President Donald Trump's speech about fraudulent elections at a rally on 6 January for prompting the attack on Congress that day, which left at least five people dead.
Trump strongly denied the notion that had he riled up the mob attacking the Capitol, later condemning the violence. He was subsequently impeached by the House for a second time on charges of inciting insurrection, but was not convicted in the Senate.
On 6 January 2021, hundreds of Trump supporters besieged the US Capitol in a bid to prevent Congress from certifying the results of what the 45th president slammed as the most corrupt elections in US history. Law enforcement authorities have so far charged about 600 people for participating in the riots.