Just days before the US Capitol riot, White House officials started providing fewer details about then-President Donald Trump’s calls and visits, the person in charge of compiling those activities for the official record told the House select committee investigating January 6, 2021, according to two sources with knowledge of the probe.
The committee interviewed Trump’s presidential diarist roughly two weeks ago. That interview has not been previously reported, nor has the testimony describing a noticeable drop-off in information provided by Oval Office staff leading up to January 6.
Other witnesses also have told the panel there was significantly less information being shared with those involved in White House record-keeping during the same time period, according to three sources familiar with the investigation.
One source described how White House record-keepers appeared to be “iced out” in the days leading up to January 6.
“The last day that normal information was sent was the 4th,” said another source familiar with the investigation. “So, starting the 5th, the diarist didn’t receive the annotated calls and notes. This was a dramatic departure. That is all out of the ordinary.”
The White House diarist normally receives many streams of information, including the phone logs from the switchboard, the president’s movements from the US Secret Service and, critically, the notes from Oval Office operations, which detail calls, guests and activities.
But sources close to the panel’s investigation do not seem to know yet who, if anyone, directed a change in record-keeping or what the motivation behind that change was, raising questions about whether the lack of information was intentional or for staffing issues.
“It’s tough to know what that change was. Was it intentional?” one source said. “You can only keep track of something when you know what’s going on. When people don’t share things with you, whether that was intentional and who decided that, I think it’s a little murky at this point.”
The House committee declined to comment.
CNN reached out to a spokesman for Trump and did not hear back. CNN has also reached out to the National Archives for comment.
These revelations come as the House select committee is trying to understand what Trump was doing (and not doing) during a seven-hour gap that exists in the White House call log and the presidential diary from January 6, 2021. The recently revealed switchboard call log and the presidential diary for the day contain no information about the then-President’s actions during the riot, including phone calls that are known to have occurred and should have been documented in the diary.
CNN previously reported that a likely explanation for the gap in the phone log is that Trump used cell phones, direct landlines or aides’ phones that bypassed the White House switchboard. An official review of the call logs found no missing pages.
While the select committee does not have detailed notes about the comings and goings into the Oval Office on January 6, they have received testimony that has helped fill in some of the gaps, according to a source familiar with the investigation. That includes calls Trump made and received, as well as who was with him in the private dining room off the Oval Office as he reportedly watched the riot unfold on television.
The presidential diary that was generated for January 6 contains scant details. It lists information from the switchboard call logs and Trump’s public schedule but little else besides a phone call the former President had with an “unidentified individual” at 11:17 a.m. And there are no entries in the diary for roughly three hours, from 1:21 p.m. to 4:03 p.m.
The Presidential Records Act outlines that the office of the presidency has an obligation to adequately document activities of the president. But there is little to no enforcement mechanism to ensure the law is followed. While there are criminal consequences for the destruction of government records, there are none that penalize the failure to create them in the first place.
No explanation has been given so far as to why calls known to have been made in the hours Trump was in the Oval Office are not documented in the presidential diary. But around that time, a number of factors could have reduced the flow of information into the official record.
For one, sources told CNN that early January was a chaotic time inside the White House and that Trump was spending more time in the residence and conducting less official business.
According to one former Trump official, “all sense of normal order started to break down” and around early January, “the cracks were showing.” While some people had been looking to find other jobs, others had been confused and it became “every man for himself,” the former official added.
Trump has not faced any charges in connection with the January 6 insurrection, as the Justice Department and Attorney General Merrick Garland have been facing pressure to go after the former President and his allies more aggressively for their involvement in that day.
While President Joe Biden has not publicly said he believes Trump should be charged, The New York Times on Saturday reported that Biden has “confided to his inner circle” that he believed Trump “was a threat to democracy and should be prosecuted, according to two people familiar with his comments.” Biden has previously condemned Trump as a threat to democracy.
But White House chief of staff Ron Klain said Sunday that he had not personally heard the President “advocate the prosecution of any person” and that the Biden White House has returned to the practice of allowing the Justice Department to work independently.
“The President has confidence in the attorney general to make those decisions, and that’s where those decisions should be made,” Klain said on ABC’s This Week.”
This story has been updated with additional reaction.
CNN’s Pamela Brown, Gloria Borger, Ashley Semler, Katelyn Polantz, Kaitlan Collins, Rachel Janfaza, Jasmine Wright and Chandelis Duster contributed to this report.