Trump says he has 'no idea what a burner phone is' as Jan. 6 committee probes missing logs
Former President Donald Trump issued a statement Monday night in response to a report that the Jan. 6 committee is now investigating whether Trump communicated that day through backchannels, phones of aides or disposable phones known as "burner phones" after White House logs that were turned over to the panel show a gap of more than seven hours between his calls.
"I have no idea what a burner phone is, to the best of my knowledge I have never even heard the term," Trump said in a statement after the report was published by CBS News and the Washington Post.
A spokeswoman for the former president added that Trump had nothing to do with the records and had assumed any and all of his phone calls were recorded and preserved.
Contradicting that statement, Trump's former national security adviser, John Bolton, said Tuesday that he had heard the former president discuss burner phones.
NEWS: Former Trump national security adviser John Bolton said in an interview Tuesday, after the CBS-Post reporting was published, that he recalls Trump using the term “burner phones” in several discussions and that Trump was aware of its meaning…
— Robert Costa (@costareports) March 29, 2022
Bolton also said he and Trump have spoken about how people have used “burner phones” to avoid having their calls scrutinized.@AmbJohnBolton @CBSNews @washingtonpost
— Robert Costa (@costareports) March 29, 2022
White House logs that were turned over to the House select committee that is investigating the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol show no record of calls to or from Trump between 11:17 a.m. and 6:54 p.m. — a gap of seven hours and 37 minutes.
The breach of the Capitol by a violent mob of Trump supporters began shortly after 2 p.m. that day, just as Congress had gathered to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election.
The records show that Trump had conversations with at least eight people in the morning and 11 people that evening. Among them was former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon — who had predicted on his podcast the day before that "all hell is going to break loose."
Bannon was indicted by a federal grand jury last fall for criminal contempt of Congress after failing to cooperate with a subpoena from the committee.
On Monday night, the panel voted to refer two more former Trump administration officials — Dan Scavino Jr. and Peter Navarro — for criminal charges for their refusal to testify. That recommendation will now be sent to the full House of Representatives for a vote. If the vote passes, the referral would be passed on to the Justice Department.
The Justice Department is still considering whether to prosecute former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows after the full House voted to refer him for contempt charges in December.
