Jan. 6 investigators seek preservation of phone records

Source: Politico | August 30, 2021 | Nicholas Wu

The panel probing the Capitol riot didn’t identify the names of the people whose communications it’s seeking, but the list could include fellow lawmakers.

The select panel investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection on Monday asked a broad group of telecommunication companies to preserve records related to the attack — a request that could include communications from some members of Congress.

Apple, AT&T, Verizon and 32 other companies received requests from the Jan. 6 committee for records from April 1, 2020, to January 31, 2021. Select panel chair Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) asked the companies for specific individuals’ records, and while the names of those people were redacted from the publicly released orders, Thompson indicated last week that the request for communications of relevant individuals could touch on fellow lawmakers.

Investigators on the Democrat-led Jan. 6 committee are seeking clarity on phone calls between former President Donald Trump and members of Congress during the attack, among other communications. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) are among those known to have spoken with Trump on Jan. 6.

Nearly three dozen companies, including Verizon, T-Mobile, Gab, Discord and Twitter, received requests from the Jan. 6 select committee to preserve records in a letter dated Monday. While names of covered officials were not included in the public copies of the requests, the panel’s latest bid for information is bound to be politically fraught.

Outraged GOP lawmakers have already called the committee’s interest in communications records of their colleagues an “authoritarian” overreach by Democrats. Although two anti-Trump Republicans now sit on the select panel, most voted against its establishment, and GOP senators filibustered a bill that would have created an independent commission on Jan. 6.

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