For two days this week, one of the top trending stories shared by news outlets and journalists regarded internal White House records from Jan. 6, 2021 obtained by the House committee investigating the Capitol riot showing "a gap" in then-President Donald Trump’s phone logs of seven hours and 37 minutes -- including a period when the pro-Trump mob was storming the Capitol building.
The seven-hour gap fueled an avalanche of speculation, with numerous high profile media figures suggesting the gap was the result of a coverup to hide Trump's communications that day. Some suggested Trump was using "burner phones," which he has denied, as a means of covering his tracks. A tweet from The Daily Show outright claimed that Trump "erased seven hours of phone logs on Jan. 6." But according to a new report from CNN, the gap likely has a simpler explanation.
Sources familiar with Trump's phone habits and the White House switchboard records tell CNN that Trump mainly placed calls through the switchboard when he was in the residence but rarely used it when he was in the Oval Office. The fact the log does not show calls on the day of the Capitol riot from the Oval Office is not unusual, the sources tell CNN, "because Trump typically had staff either place calls directly for him on landlines or cell phones. Those calls would not be noted on the switchboard log."
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"The six pages of White House switchboard logs for January 6, 2021, are complete based on an official review of White House records, according to a source familiar with the matter," CNN reports. "There are no missing pages and the seven-hour gap is likely explained by use of White House landlines, White House cell phones and personal cell phones that do not go through the switchboard."
There's more than one explanation to explain the gap, one being that Trump was speaking to people from a cell phone. It was known that Trump had a habit of using his and other people's phones to make or receive calls. "Another explanation could be that Trump had aides place direct calls from the Oval Office, bypassing the switchboard," CNN reports.
Read the full report over at CNN.
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