Metaphor alert…
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Something in all this mess must be a crime. 
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Tommy was one of about a dozen R-Senators who planned to object to certification. TFG was simply worried that the idiots he unleashed on the capitol might mistakenly kill the wrong senators.
“I know we’ve got problems,” the president told him on the call. “Protect yourself.”
After being evacuated to a secure location with the rest of the body, Tuberville was one of a dozen Republican senators, all of whom had intended to vote against certifying some state’s electoral votes, that huddled together in a storage closet.
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Not in and of itself, but the DOJ is indeed charged with protecting public money, property or records:
There are several provisions of federal criminal law imposing liability on officials who violate the PRA and the FRA. 18 U.S.C. § 641 makes it a felony to, among other things, dispose of any record that belongs to the United States. 18 U.S.C. § 1361 makes it a felony to injure property of the United States.
More specific to records, 18 U.S.C. § 2071 makes it a felony to willfully and unlawfully remove, mutilate or destroy—or to attempt to remove, mutilate or destroy—any record deposited in any public office or with any public officer of the United States. That same provision also makes it a felony for anyone having custody of such records to remove, mutilate or destroy those records and imposes severe consequences: a violation requires the individual to “forfeit his office and be disqualified from holding any office under the United States.”
In addition to these provisions, 18 U.S.C. § 1505 makes it a felony for individuals to obstruct congressional investigations.
Under a straightforward reading of any of these statutes, Trump (and those who knowingly helped him destroy presidential records) could well be held liable for violations of criminal law. Note that at least some courts have held that the statutes prohibiting the destruction of public records are specific intent crimes, meaning that violators must know they are breaking the law to be convicted. But that should not be an obstacle here, as reporting indicates Trump and his aides were specifically and repeatedly warned about violating the PRA.
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Where is Garland?
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Calling Sen. Mike Lee when you really meant to call Sen. Tommy Tuberville sounds like the kind of dopey mistake a barely-out-of-college MAGA true-believer of a White House staffer would make if told to put numbers into the burner phone he/she bought with cash at Best Buy. “Hey, kid, get me that jackass Senator from Alabama on the burner phone!”
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Oh, there are definitely some crimes, just probably not any significant ones for the White House phone logs. I’d point you instead towards:
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Conspiracy to defraud the United States, based on Trump and others’ attempts to reverse the election results via fraudulent electors and the Pence Gambit.
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Conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, for which we still do not have direct evidence that Trump agreed to unleash the mob on the Capitol, but c’mon, that evidence is almost certainly going to turn up.
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Seditious conspiracy, which is a long-shot but still might be viable if/when the evidence turns up on item no. 2.
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Tuberville was dumb and wet behind the ears, having spent a whopping 3 days as senator. He also didn’t have to face election for nearly six years, whereas as rojo is up for booting in 2022. So, you want a senator to do something dumb and risky, feel-o-me-tubers is the better bet.
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Between your ears.
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So the person who actually falsified the records and sent them over is not going to be high-ranking. They might not even be a trump loyalist. And they’re sure as heck not going to have the money they would need to defend this.
(Yes, I am assuming that the white house PBX logs everything, and tfg’s people redacted that. If it’s burner phones, then that will be available from other sources, including the russian embassy…)
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What is between yours?
Honestly, I can’t wait for the Ken Burns series on this era because it’ll be fascinating.
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Evidently, the term “crisis management” in Trump’s presidency referred solely to Trump scrambling to save his own skin from some sort of self-created fiasco.
Anything else affecting the welfare of the country as a whole was judged in terms of its direct relationship to Trump’s personal welfare. This is what good government looked like in MAGA-land.
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What public record would be generated when Fat Donnie uses a private cell phone instead of a White House land line? And how has such (non-existent) record been criminally destroyed?
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I don’t think any falsification happened. Instead TFG went all cell phone for seven hours, including using many staffers’ phones. Which would go towards mens rea. You take precautions to mask your communications, you have doubts about the legality of your actions. Yes, it’s “normal” for exec types to sometimes have bystanders place calls for him. But not for seven hours to the exclusion of all other means of making and receiving calls.
ETA: Ok, having looked at the activity in the call log before and after the gap, that 7+ hour gap is simply unexplainable save by deliberate omission.
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You did mention the consciousness of guilt aspect of this in particular, though. That’s pretty intuitive.
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Add to that the new liability theory adopted by the Louisiana Supreme Court that protest organizers can be held personally liable for the actions of those who attend their event.
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On any day, obviously. It might be interesting to find other gaps like this and see what went on that day.
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Sigh. Folks, there’s really nothing to see here. Trump didn’t call anyone on Jan 6th, that’s why there are no records.
Alec Baldwin prank-called people during the insurrection, reprising his role on SNL.
Now I know you’re doubting me, but just follow the trail. October 20:
October 21, just one day later:
Steve Bannon knew that trump hadn’t picked up his phone all day, had just been watching tv and drinking trump wine concealed in diet coke bottles. Alec had to come up with a way to distract.
And who did he kill?
Yup, that’s right, a Ukrainian cinematographer. Coincidence?
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Agree completely. Trump effectively shutdown the WH switchboard because he did not want to hear from the Peanut Gallery (ie. DHS, DoJ, DoD, District of Columbis and Capitol Police, Congress, Gov. of Maryland, Gov. of Virginia, etc.), BUT he did want to talk to his co-conspirators like Rudy, Eastman, the Traitor Caucus (Cruz, Hawley, Jordan, McCarthy). During the Insurrection he reverted to his informal cellphone network to call who he wanted to call. He knew exactly what he was doing and was conscious of the potential illegality of his actions. Evidence of both CONFRAUDUS and Obstruction of a Congressional Official Proceeding. I have confidence, with this mountain of evidence, that DoJ will bust all these guys soon.
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