Former president Donald Trump claims he wanted to join a riotous mob of his supporters in marching from the Ellipse on the way to attacking the Capitol on 6 January 2021, but was prevented from doing so by his security detail.
“Secret Service said I couldn’t go. I would have gone there in a minute," said Mr Trump during an interview with The Washington Post.
The day of the riot, Mr Trump delivered a falsehood-laden stemwinder of a speech in which he claimed the 2020 election was stolen from him, said then-vice president Mike Pence could “send” swing state electoral votes back to states for Republican legislatures to overturn, and told supporters to march to the Capitol.
"We fight like hell. And if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore," he said.
He also said he would “be there” with them, leading many to conclude that he had planned to march himself.
But according to a copy of Mr Trump’s private schedule for that day, he had no intention of going to the Capitol.
The only movements listed on the schedule were between the White House and the Ellipse — not the Capitol.
The former president frequently blamed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for the riot, using a now-common Republican talking point which suggests she bore sole authority over the US Capitol Police, authority she does not and did not have that day.
A spokesperson for Ms Pelosi, Drew Hammill, told the Post Ms Pelosi “was no more in charge of the security of the U.S. Capitol that day than Mitch McConnell”.
In the interview with The Post, Mr Trump addressed the seven-hour period on January 6 for which no White House call logs have been provided to the committee investigating the events of that day.
He denied using burner phones and said he did not recall getting many calls during that period. He has previously claimed never to have heard the phrase “burner phones” or not what they were, a statement contradicted by his onetime national security adviser John Bolton, who said he had heard the then-president use the term. It also emerged a lawsuit by Mr Trump against a family member used the term.
He told The Post: “From the standpoint of telephone calls, I don’t remember getting very many.
“Why would I care about who called me? If congressmen were calling me, what difference did it make? There was nothing secretive about it. There was no secret.”
In the interview, conducted on Wednesday at Mar-a-Lago, Mr Trump acknowledged that he had spoken with Ginni Thomas, wife of the Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas, during his presidency. But he said they had not aware of her alleged efforts to overturn the result of the 2020 election.
Ms Thomas has been criticised following the publication of texts she sent to Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows urging him to push conspiracy theories to halt the certification of President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.
Mr Trump told the paper: “First of all, her husband is a great justice. And she’s a fine woman. And she loves our country.”
