House panel investigating Capitol riot tells telecom firms to preserve Trump allies’ phone records

The House select committee investigating the deadly Capitol invasion told dozens of companies, including telecommunications providers, to preserve the phone records of some staunchly pro-Trump Republican lawmakers.

The committee, led by Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., reached out 35 private-sector firms “instructing them to preserve records which may be relevant to the Select Committee’s investigation,” a spokesman told CNBC.

“The Select Committee is at this point gathering facts, not alleging wrongdoing by any individual,” the spokesman said.

Included in the panel’s latest batch of letters are requests sent to telecommunications giants ATT, Verizon, T-Mobile and U.S. Cellular.

The letters ask the recipients to save information they may have about people who have been “charged with crimes associated with the attack” by the Department of Justice, as well as people who were “involved in organizing, funding, or speaking” at the rallies in Washington that promoted “objecting to the certification of the electoral college votes”.

The letters also ask for the preservation of records related to “individuals potentially involved with discussions of plans to challenge, delay, or interfere with the January 6, 2021, certification or otherwise attempt to overturn election results, in the days preceding and up through the attack.”

Earlier Wednesday, NBC News reported that the list of names to be submitted to the telecoms firms — including Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Florida’s Matt Gaetz and Mo Brooks of Alabama — is still evolving.

That list was first reported earlier Monday by CNN, citing sources who said the members were targeted due to their links to former President Donald Trump‘s “Stop the Steal” rally outside the White House on Jan. 6.

The other Republicans named in the list are Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Ohio’s Jim Jordan, Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar of Arizona, North Carolina’s Madison Cawthorn, Louie Gohmert of Texas, Jody Hice of Georgia and Pennsylvania’s Scott Perry.

A spokesman for the Jan. 6 select committee declined to confirm the reporting.

Article source: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/30/capitol-riot-jan-6-committee-wants-trump-allies-phone-records-preserved.html