Legal experts explain how probe into Jan. 6 phone records will work and what it could reveal

CNN reported Monday afternoon that the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack will be sending subpoenas to social media sites and cell phone companies to investigate who was engaging with the protesters on that day.

In a Monday CNN panel with legal experts Elie Honig and former Homeland Security Official Juliette Kayyem explained how exactly that would work. They also detailed what it could tell them about members if they were involved, and about contact they may have had with former President Donald Trump.

"What they show is what cell phone number called to what other number when and for how long," said Honig. "And I think investigators need to look for two specific things here. One, was there contact between members of Congress or their staff and the people who actually rioted on Jan. 6th in the days and hours leading up to that? If so, what were you talking about and why? Two, were there communications between the staff and White House? [Kevin] McCarthy and Jim Jordan were in contact with Donald Trump. How many times? Who else? That will give Congress a road map of how they answer the questions."

In a series of interviews, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) was asked if he spoke to Trump during the attack on the Capitol. It was an innocent question, but Jordan was so flummoxed by it and stammered his way through an answer twice, raising questions about his conversations.

Kayyem explained that the key piece of information is not about a legal fight or a court case, it's about the congressional investigation determining what happened and how.

"This is what was the extent of the conspiracy and was it as big as the 600 or 700 or 800 we anticipated were in the Capitol building at the time," she said. "If it's much smaller, then who was directing it and that comes to members of Congress. So part of this is just sort of what is that narrative of how we got here?"

"The other thing that is important," she continued, "We still have to worry about this threat, and one way to undermine or to dissipate a terrorism threat is to make the terrorist organization look like losers. Like they can't actually function. So, I really love what is going on now is because it is -- you cannot have a winning team because that is how terrorists recruit and raise money."

That's when host Don Lemon mentioned Jordan and his problems with the interview question. The panel broke into laughter.

See the video below:

how the phone probe will happen for jan 6www.youtube.com