Seizure Of Donald Trump Call Log By Nancy Pelosi & Jan 6 Committee Under Consideration

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According to a new report from CNN, the House committee investigating the January riot at the Capitol is considering going after call records from the Trump White House covering January 6. These records could provide a critical look at what then-President Donald Trump was actually doing that day. For awhile, he stayed relatively quiet as the violence unfolded, and he eventually explicitly sought to excuse what took place at the Capitol, insisting on Twitter that “these are the things and events that happen” when an election is stolen — although, of course, such a theft of an election didn’t actually take place.

The CNN report makes clear that the committee, which has Nancy Pelosi’s backing, has not settled on a course of action regarding this matter, but the outlet notes in the meantime that the issue “could present a potentially thorny dilemma for President Joe Biden who would ultimately have to determine whether the records should be covered by executive privilege or qualify as essential evidence for the ongoing probe.”

The riot investigation committee is also “actively considering the possibility of pursuing… other relevant documents that could raise additional executive privilege questions,” according to CNN’s new report. Notably, the Biden administration has already opted against asserting executive privilege over testimony from certain ex-Justice Department officials who could provide firsthand perspectives on Trump’s post-election efforts to get Biden’s win somehow thrown out. In a letter from last month, Associate Deputy Attorney General Bradley Weinsheimer wrote that Biden had “decided that it would not be appropriate to assert executive privilege with respect to communications with former President Trump and his advisors and staff on matters related to the scope of the Committees’ proposed interviews.” (Previously, the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees were investigating Capitol riot-related issues.)

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), who is one of just two Republicans on the House committee investigating the riot, has already stated that he hopes to uncover “what the president was doing every moment of that day,” and Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) — the other Republican on the committee — has spoken similarly, saying that investigators and Americans at large “must also know what happened every minute of that day in the White House — every phone call, every conversation, every meeting — leading up to, during, and after the attack.” These comments, of course, suggest that Cheney may be supportive of pursuing White House call logs from January 6. Broadly, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), who is chairing the riot investigation committee, has already said that initial subpoenas from the committee should emerge “soon.”