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CNN: Trump tried to call member of White House support staff who was talking to Jan. 6 committee [1]
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Date: 2022-07-14
CNN is reporting that former President Donald Trump tried to call a member of the White House support staff who was talking to the House Jan. 6 select committee, citing two sources familiar with the matter.
The sources told CNN that the support staffer was not someone who routinely communicated with Trump.
Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the committee’s vice chair, dropped a bombshell at the end of Tuesday’s public hearing when she revealed that Trump “tried to call” an unnamed witness.
“That person declined to answer or respond to President Trump’s call, and instead alerted their lawyer to the call. Their lawyer alerted us,” Cheney said. “We will take any effort to influence witness testimony very seriously,"
The committee has supplied information on the matter to the Department of Justice.
Cheney’s revelation raised questions about whether Trump could have committed the crime of witness tampering. And there had been much speculation about the identity of the witness.
CNN reported:
The call was made after former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified publicly to the committee. The White House staffer was in a position to corroborate part of what Hutchinson had said under oath, according to the sources. CNN was told the position of the witness Trump tried to call, but not the person's name. Details about the witness Trump tried to contact have not been previously reported.
gave an interview to The Associated Press in December 2020 saying there was no widespread voter fraud, It looks like Hutchinson’s testimony has really rattled Trump. A member of the White House support staff would be able to corroborate Hutchinson’s account of how Trump threw a plate of food at the wall, smearing it with ketchup. Trump was reportedly enraged that then-Attorney General William Barrin December 2020 saying there was no widespread voter fraud,
Well so much for Newsmax host Greg Kelly who found a novel way to dismiss the revelation that Trump had tried to call a witness se to appear before the Jan. 6 committee .Kelly actually said “maybe it was a butt dial” by Trump. That’s actually something Trump’s former lawyer Rudy Giuliani is quite proficient at.
x Newsmax host: Trump's call to January 6 witness may have just been a “butt dial”
https://t.co/cQLNg9koEb pic.twitter.com/IPNAUC8Qde — Jason Campbell (@JasonSCampbell) July 13, 2022
So we can lay the “butt dial” theory to rest because it’s quite unlikely that Trump would have the telephone number for a member of the White House support staff on his cell phone.
The committee’s chairman, Rep. Bennie Thomson of Mississippi, is taking the matter seriously . He told CNN on Wednesday that Trump’s attempt to call this witness was concerning enough to bring the matter to the Department of Justice.”
"From my vantage point, it is highly unusual to do that, and that's why we more or less put that in the hands of the Justice Department, for them to make that decision," Thompson said, when asked if the act of Trump calling the person was enough evidence to determine whether he was attempting to intimidate a witness. "We are concerned about witnesses' safety."
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