Not just the phone log that has omissions

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.

  CNN

I have an opinion on that:  Probably both.

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.

[...]

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.

[...]

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.

That needs to be fixed.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Trump's attempts to keep records from Congress

This is what happens when you're too lazy or entitled to destroy your own papers.

After a process that reached the supreme court, the [National] Archives gave more than 700 documents concerning the Capitol attack to the House committee last month.

[...]

In a statement, the Archives said: “Some of the Trump presidential records received by the National Archives and Records Administration included paper records that had been torn up by former president Trump. “These were turned over to the National Archives at the end of the Trump administration, along with a number of torn-up records that had not been reconstructed by the White House. The Presidential Records Act requires that all records created by presidents be turned over to the National Archives at the end of their administrations.” The Archives did not say how it knew Trump had torn the records but his habit of tearing up documents has been widely reported.

  Guardian

He should have eaten them.

In 2018, Politico spoke to Solomon Lartey, a records management analyst who spent time “armed with rolls of clear Scotch tape … sft[ing] through large piles of paper and put[ting] them back together … ‘like a jigsaw puzzle’.”

Lartey and another staffer who taped records were fired by the White House that year, they said summarily.

Lartey said: “They told [Trump] to stop doing it. He didn’t want to stop.”

[...]

Speaking to the Washington Post, Stephen Gillers, a New York University law professor, said destroying White House documents “could be a crime under several statutes that make it a crime to destroy government property if that was the intent of the defendant.

“A president does not own the records generated by his own administration. The definition of presidential records is broad. Trump’s own notes to himself could qualify and destroying them could be the criminal destruction of government property.”

The least of his crimes while in office.

For future researchers, if we have a future, this will be a funny find. Four years of historical records will be taped together.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Inch by inch

The Supreme Court last night upheld a lower court ruling that the National Archive must hand over White House records to the committee, rejecting the former president's request to keep them private. Those records include things like visitor logs, emails and memos about legal strategy — as Walsh put it, things that the committee wants to see as they piece together all the conversations around Trump that led to the insurrection.

House panel Chair Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said in a statement last night that those materials were already on their way.

  NPR

Clarence Thomas dissented.

Cue the nasty "Statement of Donald J Trump" bad-mouthing the Supremes he thought he owned.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE: