House Committee to Probe Trump Phone Call Made Before Capitol Attack

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The US congressional committee probing the January 6 riot will launch an investigation into a phone call former President Donald Trump made a few hours before a crowd tried to protest the certification of the 2020 election results, chairman Bennie Thompson told The Guardian.

"That's right", Thompson said when asked whether the select committee would look into Trump’s phone call, and suggested House investigators had already begun to consider ways to investigate the Trump's demand that Biden not be certified as president on January 6.

Thompson said his committee now plans to study it carefully, if they succeed in gaining access to Trump's presidential records.

In November, The Guardian reported Trump had phoned some of his subordinates at the Willard hotel in Washington from the White House late at night on 5 January and urged them to find ways to prevent Congress from formally confirming the presidential election result by which current President Joe Biden defeated him.

The House select committee is waging a legal battle to gain access to the records against the objections of Trump's lawyers, who claim they must remain confidential due to executive privilege.