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Donald Trump has a 457-minute gap on January 6

The Washington Post reports that Donald Trump's phone log on January 6, 2021, goes suddenly silent for 7 hours and 37 minutes starting when Trump addressed the rally to overturn the vote and continuing through the attack on the Capitol. Shortly after the rioters were finally cleared, the phone logs once again list calls to and from Trump:

Aside from this gap being pretty unlikely under any circumstances, we know for a fact that Trump made and accepted numerous calls during this period. Obviously he's not trying to hide those from investigators since they're already public record, attested to under oath by various of Trump's friends and aides. One of them is even listed in the presidential daily diary. So what is he trying to hide?

51 thoughts on “Donald Trump has a 457-minute gap on January 6

  1. Jasper_in_Boston

    Obviously he's not trying to hide those from investigators since they're already public record, attested to under oath by various of Trump's friends and aides.

    Their words against his!

  2. cld

    For conservatives if you can't make them admit they're guilty they never will be.

    I never heard Jimmy Hoffa's dead. Sure, you never see him, but you can't prove he's dead. He's out there having a burger with Elvis.

    1. ScentOfViolets

      "If you can't make me say I'm wrong I win." Oldest trick in their book and still their go-to move if anyone lets them get away with it.

      I despise people who resort to it as a matter of course with a blazing white-hot fury.

  3. royko

    One possibility is that there are phone calls investigators don't know anything about. I would think that they have the actual phone records, but I don't know.

    The other I have seen raised is that he was using a burner phone to communicate that day, which seems unlikely, but who knows.

    1. Jasper_in_Boston

      Totally. This is a man who flushed government records down the john. As president he was utterly contemptuous of laws requiring transparency and the proper handling of information. And on January 6th he was the proverbial cornered rat fighting for his political life. Burner phone? Absolutely. I wouldn't be surprised to learn he used them regularly, throughout his four years in office.

      1. jharp

        “Burner phone? Absolutely. I wouldn't be surprised to learn he used them regularly, throughout his four years in office.“

        I’d be quite surprised if Trump didn’t use burner phones.

        It’s what criminals trying to hide evidence do pretty much always.

      2. Austin

        And on January 6th he was the proverbial cornered rat fighting for his political life.

        I don’t know why he was so afraid to leave office. I mean it’s not like anybody has arrested or even charged him with anything since Jan 20, 2021, and nobody appears willing to make him testify about anything either. After all, prosecuting a former president would be what a banana republic does, and we’re not that kind of banana republic yet.

        1. Mitch Guthman

          But, paradoxically, not prosecuting a former president for crimes or for attempting to overthrow the elected government for political reasons is also the hallmark of a banana republic. It is a conundrum, isn’t it?

    2. kahner

      I don't think that seems unlikely at all. I believe someone close to trump and involved in organizing jan 6th explicitly asked an aide to go buy burner phones for use during the rally. I can't recall the details but I'm pretty sure this was reported by major news orgs.

      1. Toofbew

        Yes, I read the same reports several weeks ago. The Willard Hotel group was behind this as I recall. They knew they had to cover their tracks.

      2. royko

        I guess I don't think it's unlikely that he would use burner phones, but he talked to a lot of people during this gap, including members of Congress, so we're not just talking about his co-conspirators. And I would think if the President of the United States were calling Senators from some random cell number, that would have been hard to hide, and we would have heard about it by now.

        Then again, I would have thought that we'd have heard about a 7 hour gap in WH phone logs long before this, too, so what do I know?

  4. Salamander

    Any number of intelligence services would have been monitoring White House phone calls, even our allies. They would likely even have voice recordings. If Israel is actually an ally of the United States (we know too well that the vice versa situation applies), they'd cough up these records.

    Just saying' ...

      1. kahner

        i THINK yes, so long as law enforcement / government officials weren't involved in the illegality. If the info is passed from a foreign gov, perhaps via a journalist, to law enforcement such records might be admissible in court or perhaps the basis for search warrants or other court ordered records being released to investigators.

        1. J. Frank Parnell

          Not a lawyer, but evidence without a reliable chain of custody is usually excluded from a criminal trial.

          1. Mitch Guthman

            Hypothetically, if a foreign government were prepared to turn over records of its eavesdropping on Trump's burner phone, there would be no difficulty authenticating those records as being conversations recorded on a particular date and location. Presumably, the British SIS could find a custodian of records so there wouldn't be any difficulty authenticating the tapes.

            The larger difficulty would be authenticating the tapes as being of Donald Trump and so other speaker(s). There's a wide variety of ways of doing that depending on the situation but, in theory, the court could simply play the tapes and let the jury determine who's voice(s) are on the tape as a question of fact.

            The two obvious problems are: first that no intelligence agency or foreign government would do what's being suggested and secondly that the DOJ isn't going to prosecute Donald Trump under any circumstances.

      2. Salamander

        Maybe not; I'm no lawyer. On the other hand, these records could identify additional persons to question, lines of questioning, potential sources of other records, even more crimes that can be investigated by conventional means...

    1. HokieAnnie

      The same Israeli government that wont aid Ukraine out of fear of insulting Russia?

      I bet they wouldn't actually. Better to ask Canada or France.

  5. middleoftheroaddem

    Trump is a horrible person. January 6th and perhaps Watergate are the two worst political events of my life. With that said:

    - It does not appear Trump is going to be charged with anything.
    - A time gap in the call log, by itself, proves nothing.
    - The Trumpist wing will love this man no matter.

    So, is the real goal of this article to convince Democrats that Trump is evil?

    1. Jasper_in_Boston

      A time gap in the call log, by itself, proves nothing.

      Agreed, but you really think that's the only piece of evidence concerning Trump's criminality?

      The other day a federal judge publicly expressed his opinion to the contrary.

      1. middleoftheroaddem

        Jasper - my point. Democrats already know what type of evil we have in Trump. Lots of Republicans' seem to love Trump no matter what evidence is found. It seems, for a variety of reasons, Trump will not face charges.

        Who exactly is Kevin really influencing with this article?

        1. Jasper_in_Boston

          And my point is there's substantial evidence of Trump's criminality. This is just one more piece to add to that collection.

          1. Mitch Guthman

            There’s also substantial evidence that the Democrats and the DOJ have decided to focus exclusively on the low level grunts and give everyone else, especially Donald Trump, a pass.

            I really don’t see the point of these investigations. The Democrats are unwilling and apparently incapable of making effective use of these revelations. The DOJ has obviously make the political decision to confine itself to prosecuting the low level cannon fodder while very carefully avoiding anyone in Trump’s orbit.

          2. iamr4man

            Trump’s defense regarding the insurrection is that he did not plan and foment it. His rally was a gathering of his supporters who protested the election results which they and he believed were false. The march to the Capitol was peaceful and most participants were ordinary citizens peacefully protesting. The Capitol violence and break in was by a small group of either overzealous people or anti-Trump plants.
            We know that is a lie but in court you would have to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt. Trump’s phone calls may lead to evidence that he was a full and knowledgeable participant and perhaps engaged in the planning of the insurrection.
            Or they could just be calls lining up a sex orgy and that would be embarrassing but not illegal. In any event, it’s something that needs further investigation.
            https://thehill.com/homenews/media/599987-cawthorn-says-people-in-dc-have-invited-to-orgy-done-cocaine-in-front-of-him

            1. Joel

              "Or they could just be calls lining up a sex orgy . . ."

              In the basement of Comet Ping Pong Pizza? Inquiring minds, etc.

              1. iamr4man

                Since it’s Cawthorn, it must be Republicans, right? My first thought was that it was Lindsay Graham that called him and he was the only one called.

    2. realrobmac

      "A time gap in the call log, by itself, proves nothing."

      You could say the same thing about a bloody knife at a murder scene I guess if you want to get technical. But it sure looks like good evidence of obstruction of justice, which is a crime. And it looks like evidence someone is trying to hide something, which shows consciousness of guilt and suggests that investigators find out what that something is.

  6. Joel

    "So, is the real goal of this article to convince Democrats that Trump is evil?"

    LOL! There are Democrats (and other objective Americans) who don't already know that Trump is evil?

  7. Salamander

    I do hope that revelations like this just keep coming up, that there's new news every week, that the JanSix hearings don't come too late for the November election ... and that Democrats find some way of reminding the voters (all of them) that Republicans and the party apparatus are standing behind and supporting all this criminality.

    Sure, sure, you'll always have your Jill Steins and Tulsi Gabbards insisting that "they're both exactly alike" and that Republican criming only shows how bad the Democrats clearly are.

    And the chin-stroking pundits of cable newz and the major papers "both-sidering" every story. Trump tried to overthrow an election? Well, Bernie Sanders wore those big, loud MITTENS to the inauguration!!"

    1. Joel

      If the calls were on burner phones, they won't appear in logs. If the person on the other end had a conventional line, there may be telecom records, but you'd have to tell the telecom which phones are under subpoena.

      1. Solar

        Don't we already know for a fact that some people did call or get calls from Trump during thst time? Jordan and McCarthy come to mind. Subpoena their records and then the use them to subpoena the ones from the numbers they called Trump at.

  8. zaphod

    Burner phones? Wow, first time I've heard that word, although it makes total sense from a criminal intent perspective. I suggest we be patient and give it a little time to sink in. Will it ever appear on the screen of the mainstream media?

    I recall that a similar gap in white house conversations fascinated the press and eventually did Nixon in.

    Will it happen this time? Maybe, maybe not. One difference is that Nixon was a politician who was playing at being a criminal. Trump is a criminal trying to take over politics.

    1. Salamander

      "Will it ever appear on the screen of the mainstream media?"

      So, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and CBS are ... what?

      1. zaphod

        Not being a subscriber to the Post or Times, I didn't realize that burner phones were already part of the discussion. From another source, I did get this quote from Trump:

        "I have no idea what a burner phone is, to the best of my knowledge I have never even heard the term," Trump said.

        Straight from the lying former POTUS, that confirms it.

        I think that the term "burner phones" is something that will have great resonance with the public. I don't see this going away. The hearings promised by the House investigating committee are going to be a big deal.

  9. Justin

    They can't be shamed or shunned. They won't be prosecuted. There is only one remedy left, but we are all too cowardly to even think it. We deserve our fate.

    Turning and turning in the widening gyre
    The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
    Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
    Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
    The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
    The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
    The best lack all conviction, while the worst
    Are full of passionate intensity.

    Surely some revelation is at hand;
    Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
    The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
    When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
    Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
    A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
    A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
    Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
    Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
    The darkness drops again; but now I know
    That twenty centuries of stony sleep
    Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
    And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
    Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

  10. spatrick

    One must understand Trump in the same way one understands a mob boss, because its from mob bosses and from their Roy Cohn where Trump was tuteladged in the New York of the 1970s and 80s. You never keep records. You never write things down and you certainly as hell don't use White House phones if you want to keep your conversations a secret. Of course he knows about "burner phones". Trump stays out of jail because there's never a smoking gun in the form of a document against him.

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