White House phone logs are the latest scandal that isn’t.
Earlier this week, the Washington Post and CBS News reported that they had obtained White House phone logs given to the January 6th committee earlier this year. They appeared to show a gap of 7 hours and 37 minutes.
Speculation immediately began that former President Donald Trump or other White House officials had removed the records from the call log in order to cover up calls that had been made. Unidentified sources told the outlets that the gap is of “intense interest” to several unnamed lawmakers.
However, a source familiar with the matter told CNN that a review of the logs found them to be complete. The logs only show calls placed through the White House switchboard, not landlines or cell phones. Trump mainly placed calls through the switchboard while in the residence, but rarely used it from the Oval Office. He preferred to have staff place calls for him, which would not be recorded in the switchboard log.
A former White House staffer under the Obama administration told CNN that then-President Obama operated in the same way, asking an aide to reach the person and connect the call to the President. Those calls would not go through the switchboard and be logged.
A spokesperson for Trump told multiple outlets that the logs are not controlled or accessed by Trump and he believes all his communications were logged accurately.
