The House panel investigating January 6 plans to obtain the phone records of President Trump and a group of Republican lawmakers, including those who participated in the “Stop the Steal” rally prior to the protest at the Capitol.
The request for the information from telecommunications companies is their first step in the committee’s investigation process and could determine the process of calling witnesses.
According to reports, Democrats want the phone records for the following Republicans: Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Jim Jordan of Ohio, Andy Biggs of Arizona, Paul Gosar of Arizona, Mo Brooks of Alabama, Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina, Matt Gaetz of Florida, Louie Gohmert of Texas, Jody Hice of Georgia, and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania.
This lineup includes some of President Trump’s biggest supporters, as well as lawmakers who objected to the certification of the 2020 election and who continue to raise awareness about voter fraud.
Select Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, previously said publicly that the committee would be asking for the phone records of “several hundred” individuals.
In addition to President Trump and the above-mentioned members of Congress, Democrats’ January 6 committee wants the phone records of Trump’s children Ivanka, Donald Trump, Jr., and Eric Trump, as well as Trump’s daughter in law, Lara Trump, and Kimberly Guilfoyle, who is Trump Jr.’s girlfriend and who worked on the campaign.
Verizon Wireless, AT&T, T-Mobile, US Cellular, and Sprint are all part of the committee’s phone-record preservation request. Democrats also made separate preservation requests for a number of social-media companies, including Apple, Google, Facebook, Signal, Slack, YouTube, Twitch, and Twitter.
The committee wants these companies to preserve the records of individuals who can be considered links between the organizers of the “Stop the Steal” rally and the so-called insurrection at the Capitol later that day.
CNN, which broke the news of the request, noted:
The committee is also specifically targeting individuals who have been charged by the Department of Justice or the District of Columbia for their affiliation with the attack and those who were attempting “to challenge, delay, or interfere” with the certification of the 2020 presidential election results. Acknowledging the wide net of preservation requests it has made, the committee wrote, “As the Select Committee continues its work, we anticipate delivering to you document requests for more specific categories of information.” The committee also stated that the request did not assume wrongdoing on the part of those affected.
In its request to Verizon for example, the select committee asks that the cell site location information, call data records and content, cloud or storage content and subscriber information be preserved. The committee also asked that if the company cannot respond to its request without alerting the specific subscriber or account in question to contact the committee directly.
The name of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is notably absent from the list of individuals whose phone records are to be preserved. McCarthy spoke with President Trump while the crowd entered the Capitol on January 6. Thompson has signaled that Democrats have not ruled out calling McCarthy to testify.
Greene said in a statement to CNN that the anticipated request is “all an attempt to smear us and remove us from office. Or even worse, put the strongest political enemies of the Democrats in jail.”
Representative Jim Banks (R-Ind.) sent Thomas a letter warning him against making the preservation request.
“Rifling through the call logs of your colleagues would depart from more than 230 years of Congressional oversight,” Banks wrote. “This type of authoritarian undertaking has no place in the House of Representatives and the information you seek has no conceivable legislative purpose.”
Jordan maintained that he has “nothing to hide,” but suggested that Republicans can do the same to Democrats in the future if they “cross this line.”
Federal prosecutors have charged more than 500 people in more than 40 states in connection with the events of January 6. Although the media and Democrats continue to call it an “insurrection,” many of those being detained did not commit violence or destroy property, but rather can be said to have committed nothing more than trespassing (although many protesters were led into the Capitol by the Capitol Police).
