The seven hour and 37 minute gap in White House call records from the day of the worst attack on the Capitol since 1814 may have resulted from “purposeful conduct to conceal evidence” and necessitates investigation by the Justice Department, National Security Archive director Thomas Blanton and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington president Noah Bookbinder said on Tuesday in a letter urging Attorney General Merrick Garland to take action against former president Donald Trump.
Mr Blanton and Mr Bookbinder previously called on Mr Garland to investigate whether Mr Trump violated federal laws which make it a crime to “willfully injure[] or commit[] any depredation” against United States property in excess of $1,000 or to willfully destroy or mutilate federal records, based on what they described as a “pattern of conduct” by the former president that they say violated his obligations under the Presidential Records Act, a post-Watergate law which requires all White House records to be preserved by the National Archives and Records Administration.
