Staff found paper in the toilets at White House residence while Trump was in office, new book claims

Staff found wads of printed paper clogging up the toilets at White House residence while Trump was in office, new book claims as National Archives asks DOJ to investigate ex-President for removing records

In her forthcoming book Confidence Man, Maggie Haberman claims that staff believed Trump had been flushing pieces of paperThe book claims that the pieces of paper, which were believed to have been teared up, ended up blocking a toilet in the White House residenceIt follows revelations that Archives officials removed 15 boxes of materials and information from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club Documents related to a president’s official duties must be handed to the National Archives at the end of their presidencyWashington Post reports mini Air Force One replica among the objects Archives personnel found boxes of official documents at Trump’s Florida homeThey included the infamous ‘sharpie’ map from 2019 Also include Trump’s ‘love letters’ with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un Raises questions about Trump’s adherence to Presidential Records Act Documents were handed over to the panel probing the January 6 Capitol riot after the Supreme Court denies Trump’s attempt to block their release Trump had a habit of ripping up official documents, causing his staff to have to tape them together or be turned over to the National Archives in pieces A weekend report revealed Trump also had documents put in burn bags to be incinerated at the Pentagon rather than preserved Watchdog group CREW called for criminal referral Tuesday 



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Staff at the White House residence repeatedly discovered wads of printed paper clogging a toilet while Donald Trump was in office, a new book has claimed.

In her forthcoming book Confidence Man, Maggie Haberman claims that staff believed Trump had been flushing pieces of paper.

The book claims that the pieces of paper, which were believed to have been teared up, ended up blocking a toilet in the residence, according to Axios.

The latest news comes after the disclosure by the Archives that officials recovered 15 boxes of White House materials that were being held at Mar-a-Lago – in apparent contravention of federal records acts.

Officials described the matter, reported by the Washington Post, as ‘preliminary,’ saying it was not clear whether they would investigate the former president or his aides. 

Meanwhile, the National Archives and Records Administration has asked the Justice Department to look into former President Donald Trump‘s removal of White House records as he left the White House – opening up a new area of potential legal exposure for Trump.

Charging a former president with violating the Presidential Records Act if any misconduct were ever established would be new territory, and Trump has already survived two impeachments while fighting off probes of his business in Manhattan and contending facing an election probe in Georgia.  

The House January 6th Committee’s probe, which recently received a trove of Trump White House records, has also brought to light Trump’s penchant for tearing up documents while in office.

Archival officials have been required to tape together documents in an effort to preserve materials that under law are the property of the U.S. government, not the president who creates or receives them. 

Officials from the National Archives and Records Administration have sought Justice Department review of former President Donald Trump’s record-keeping practices, according to a new report days after it was revealed Archives officials retrieved 15 boxes of materials from Mar-a-Lago

One item that reportedly made its way to Mar-a-Lago is a mini replica of a redesigned Air Force One that Trump used to display in the Oval Office

The government watchdog group Citizens for Responsible Ethics in Washington and the National Security Archive on Tuesday called for the DOJ to investigate, saying Trump ‘likely violated criminal laws barring the destruction of government records.

‘Donald Trump’s repeated and apparently willful destruction of his presidential records threatens to deny the American people a full historical record of his presidency and an opportunity to hold him and his administration fully accountable for their actions while in power,’ said CREW President Noah Bookbinder. ‘There is no excuse for hiding important information from the public. The Department of Justice must act to investigate and to hold Trump accountable for his reckless behavior ‘ 

Among the items items the National Archives retrieved from Mar-a-Lago is the infamous hurricane map that the president allegedly scrawled on with a Sharpie pen to expand its possible path.

Another keepsake that a source told the Post had been removed was a mini replica of Air Force One that Trump proudly displayed in the Oval Office, after involving himself in details of a redesign all the way down to a paint job.

A former aide said Trump displayed at Mar-a-Lago a ‘mini replica of one of the black border-wall slats’ that Trump helped design for his border wall. 

Sources told the Washington Post Archives officials had forwarded the matter to the Justice Department for review. Here Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks during a meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden, New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York’s Governor Kathy Hochul about gun violence

Officials at the National Archives are charged with preserving presidential records

The former president’s aides continue to look for material that belongs to the U.S. government.

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday. 

Amid the heightened scrutiny, Trump is now calling the relationship with the National Archives ‘collaborative and respectful,’ and boasting some of the material will end up in a presidential library bearing his name – although there are no plans for a site for such a library a year after Trump left office.

‘Much of this material will someday be displayed in the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library for the public to view my Administration’s incredible accomplishments for the American People,’ he said in a statement. 

‘Former President Trump’s representatives have informed NARA that they are continuing to search for additional Presidential records that belong to the National Archives,’ the National Archives and Records Administration said in a statement Monday.

The trove of information Trump failed to hand over when he left the White House in January, 2021 includes his ‘love letters’ with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.

It also included original versions of the letter former President Obama left for Trump in the top drawer of the Resolute Desk, where he told his successor: ‘We are just temporary occupants of this office. That makes us guardians of those democratic institutions and traditions – like rule of law, separation of powers, equal protection and civil liberties.’

Federal record-keeping laws establish jail time and possible forfeiture of office for those convicted of serious crimes.

Congress enacted the Presidential Record Act after Watergate, and after Congress stepped in and ‘seizing Richard Nixon’s papers as if they were in a crime scene,’ former head of the Nixon Library Dr. Timothy Naftali told DailyMail.com. 

The New York University professor said record-keeping laws are not just designed to help historians and researchers, but to constrain behavior. 

‘And it’s the knowledge, I would think, that people with power have that in the future we will know what they did, which has a I think useful and healthy constraining effect on them. That there will ultimately be accountability,’ he said.

‘They also understand that the actions that they might take for an authoritarian president could hurt them in the future that is healthy for constitutional republic.’

The retrieval follows reports the National Archives had to tape Trump documents back together after he ripped them office, routinely destroyed documents and had files put in ‘burn bags’ and sent to the Pentagon to be incinerated. 

The National Archives retrieved 15 boxes of documents from Mar-a-Lago, where former President Donald Trump has offices and where he resides. Included was an infamous ‘sharpie’ map with the track of approaching Hurricane Dorian in 2019

The president also often had White House staffer put documents in ‘burn bags’ to be destroyed via incineration at the Pentagon rather than preserved, a senior Trump White House official told the Washington Post

So-called burn bags look similar to a paper grocery bag and are widely available throughout the White House complex, as well as at organizations who deal with top-secret information like the CIA and NSA.

Burn bags are a superior alternative to shredding. 

The New York Times reported that the trove of information includes the infamous map, which was printed on a poster to show the storm track of Hurricane Dorian in 2019 during a live televised briefing. 

Trump had tweeted earlier that ‘in addition to Florida — South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama, will most likely be hit (much) harder than anticipated.’

The black lines hastily added to the map appeared to justify Trump’s statement, even though Alabama’s national weather office had contradicted Trump’s claim by writing: ‘Alabama will NOT see any impacts from #Dorian.’ Trump said afterwards that under projections, Alabama was going to be hit ‘very hard.’ 

‘The Presidential Records Act mandates that all Presidential records must be properly preserved by each Administration so that a complete set of Presidential records is transferred to the National Archives at the end of the Administration,’ Archivist David S. Ferriero said in the statement.

He said the agency ‘pursues the return of records whenever we learn that records have been improperly removed or have not been appropriately transferred to official accounts.’ He called the records act ‘critical to our democracy,’ and defended its purpose, without rebuking Trump directly. 

Trump’s record-keeping practices were already under scrutiny. Aides say he was known to rip up documents

The U.S. Code establishes fines and jail time, and even forfeiture of office, as possible penalties for violating federal document laws

Ferriero further stressed the importance of adherence to the PRA by all Presidents.

‘Whether through the creation of adequate and proper documentation, sound records management practices, the preservation of records, or the timely transfer of them to the National Archives at the end of an Administration, there should be no question as to need for both diligence and vigilance. Records matter,’ he concluded.

House Oversight Committee Chair Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) said she plans to ‘fully investigate’ the matter to make sure the records are with the Archives, ‘rather than stashed away in Trump’s golf resorts.’

The Washington Post, which broke the story of the transfer, reported that Trump’s records stash also included unidentified ‘gifts.’  

The post-Watergate records statute resulted in a section of the U.S. Code on concealment or mutilation of documents.

It states that: ‘Whoever willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates, or destroys, or attempts to do so, or, with intent to do so takes and carries away any record, proceeding, map, book, paper, document, or other thing, filed or deposited with any clerk or officer of any court of the United States, or in any public office, or with any judicial or public officer of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.’

It continues: ‘Whoever, having the custody of any such record, proceeding, map, book, document, paper, or other thing, willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates, falsifies, or destroys the same, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both; and shall forfeit his office and be disqualified from holding any office under the United States. As used in this subsection, the term ‘office’ does not include the office held by any person as a retired officer of the Armed Forces of the United States.’

The 15 boxes of information included letters from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that had been improperly removed by the ex commander-in-chief. 

The documents and gifts, which should have been turned over to The National Archives and Records Administration at the end of Trump’s presidency, were retrieved by the agency last month, the Archives confirmed in a statement Monday.  

Under the Presidential Records Act, memos, notes, letters, emails, faxes and other written correspondence related to the president’s official duties must be handed to the National Archives for preservation.   

 

The National Archives was forced to retrieve boxes of official White House records from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida (pictured) – including letters from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un – that had been improperly removed by the ex commander-in-chief

The documents from Mar-a-Lago included letters from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, which have been described as ‘love letters’

Trump once said of his friendly correspondence with Kim that they ‘fell in love’ after meeting in person. Some describe the back-and-forth with the U.S. president and North Korean dictator as ‘love letters’. 

One former Trump aide said they don’t think the ex-president acted with criminal intent, adding that the boxes of papers contained letters from world leaders as well as gifts and mementos.

‘I don’t think he did this out of malicious intent to avoid complying with the Presidential Records Act,’ the individual told the The Washington Post.

‘As long as he’s been in business, he’s been very transactional and it was probably his longtime practice and I don’t think his habits changed when he got to the White House.’ 

A Trump spokesperson did not respond to DailyMail.com’s request for comment on the document seizure. 

While law requires presidents preserve records related to administration activity, the National Archives has limited enforcement over this. One Archives official said that the Act operates through more of a ‘gentlemen’s agreement.’

Trump lost his bid last month to block the release of presidential documents from the National Archives to the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot.

The House panel received the documents in January 2022. 

The Supreme Court had ruled that the archives could turn over the documents, which include presidential diaries, visitor logs, speech drafts and handwritten notes dealing with Jan. 6 from the files of former chief of staff Mark Meadows.  

Trump’s lawyers had hoped to prolong the court fight and keep the documents on hold.

The documents, which the panel first requested in August, will add to the tens of thousands the committee has already gathered as it investigates the attack by a violent mob of Trump’s supporters and what the former president and his aides were doing while it unfolded. 

The documents and gifts, which should have been turned over to The National Archives and Records Administration at the end of Trump’s presidency, were retrieved by the agency last month

TRANSCRIPTS OF KIM JONG UN’S ‘LOVE’ LETTERS TO TRUMP

 Source: CNN

DECEMBER 25, 2018: Letter from Kim Jong Un to President Trump 

Your Excellency,

It has been 200 days since the historic DPRK-US summit in Singapore this past June, and the year is now almost coming to an end. Even now I cannot forget that moment of history when I firmly held Your Excellency’s hand at that beautiful and sacred location as the whole world watched with great interest and hope to relive the honor of that day. As I mentioned at that time, I feel very honored to have established an excellent relationship with a person such as Your Excellency.

As the new year 2019 approaches, critical issues that require endless effort toward even higher ideals and goals still await us. Just as Your Excellency frankly noted, as we enter the new year the whole world will certainly once again come to see, not so far in the future, another historic meeting between myself and Your Excellency reminiscent of a scene from a fantasy film.

I have already instructed my closest and most trusted colleagues and the relevant organs to speed up the preparations for holding a second DPRK-US summit and am prepared to achieve good results with Your Excellency during the next meeting.

Nevertheless, what worries me is that it may not reflect positively on us should both sides appear to stubbornly insist on our respective positions regarding the location of the summit. It could also result in wasting a lot of time. Therefore, my position is to urgently hold senior-level contact between the DPRK and the US to internally (translator’s note: privately) discuss and coordinate issues regarding the location.

I hope that Your Excellency will once again demonstrate great decisiveness and excellent leadership to accomplish results in the second DPRK summit. I wholeheartedly hope that the things that Your Excellency seeks to achieve will come to great fruition.

I wish the honorable First Lady, your family and those close to you good health, happiness and great success.

Sincerely, with unchanging respect for Your Excellency the President,

Chairman State Affairs Commission

Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

Kim Jong Un

25 December 2018

JUNE 10, 2019: Letter from Kim Jong Un to President Trump

 Your Excellency Mr. President,

I am writing this letter to you as we are nearing the first anniversary of our meeting in Singapore on June 12 — the historic moment of great significance that captured the attention of the world and left an imprint still indelible in my memory — as well as to congratulate you on your birthday, which is just days away. I take it as a great honor to be able to send such a letter to Your Excellency.

I extend my sincere and warm regards to Your Excellency on the occasion of your birthday. My regards also to the First Lady and the rest of your family and all your people, and I wish everyone good health and happiness and hope that everyone’s dream will become a beautiful reality.

Like the brief time we had together a year ago in Singapore, every minute we shared 103 days ago in Hanoi was also a moment of glory that remains a precious memory. Such a precious memory that I have in my unwavering respect for you will provide impetus for me to take my steps when we walk toward each other again someday in the future.

I also believe that the deep and special friendship between us will work as a magical force that leads the progress of the DPRK-US relations, clearing all the hurdles we face in the process of bringing about the developments we seek to achieve.

Your Excellency Mr. President, I still respect and lay my hopes on the will and determination that you showed in our first meeting to resolve the issue of our unique style that nobody had ever tried, and to write a new history. Today’s reality is that without a new approach and the courage it takes, the prospects for resolution of the issue will only be bleak.

I believe the one day will come sooner or later when we sit down together to make great things happen, with the will to give another chance to our mutual trust. Such a day should come again. It may well be recorded as yet another fantastic moment in history.

I assure Your Excellency that my respect for you will never change.

Happy birthday once again, Your Excellency. I hope Your Excellency will always be in good health and achieve success in your work. I extend my best wishes on behalf of my family to the First Lady and the rest of your family.

Sincerely yours,

Kim Jong Un

Two of the transcripts of the letters between the US and North Korean leaders, released by CNN , were among a slew of allegations in Woodward’s new book that surfaced on Wednesday

 

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‘The only way that a president can really be held accountable long term is to preserve a record about who said what, who did what, what policies were encouraged or adopted, and that is such an important part of the long-term scope of accountability — beyond just elections and campaigns,’ presidential historian Lindsay Chervinsky told the Washington Post.

Chervinksy added that it would also affect U.S. national security if records and documents are not disclosed. ‘That could pose a real concern if the next administration is flying blind without that information,’ she said. 

Representative Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.), a member of the January 6 House panel, said that the overall records situation reflected the ‘unconventional nature of how this White House operated’. She added that she did not have knowledge of the transfer of documents from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.      

‘That they didn’t follow rules is not a shock,’ Murphy said. ‘As for how this development relates to the committee’s work, we have different sources and methods for obtaining documents and information that we are seeking.’

While recent administrations have in some way violated the Presidential Records Act, sources told the newspaper that Trump’s administration is different due to the scale of the records retrieved from Mar-a-Lago.

One person said it is ‘out of the ordinary. The National Archives and Records Administration has never had that kind of volume transfer after the fact like this.’

And now, the recovery of the boxes of official White House records from Trump’s Florida estate raises questions about his adherence to the Act

A lawyer who worked in the White House Counsel’s Office under President Obama questioned why it took a year for the boxes to get to the archives.

‘Things that are national security sensitive or very clearly government documents should have been a part of a first sweep – so the fact that it’s been this long doesn’t reflect well on Trump,’ the lawyer said. ‘Why has it taken a year for these boxes to get there? And are there more boxes?’ 

Some of the papers handed over to the select committee were taped together by National Archives staff because they had been ripped up, the agency revealed in a statement.

‘Some of the Trump presidential records received by the National Archives and Records Administration included paper records that had been torn up by former President Trump,’ the Archives told CNN without explaining how it was known that Trump was the individual who defaced the records.

‘These were turned over to the National Archives at the end of the Trump Administration, along with a number of torn-up records that had not been reconstructed by the White House,’ the Archives said. 

‘The Presidential Records Act requires that all records created by presidents be turned over to the National Archives at the end of their administrations.’  

The Archives has struggled with Trump’s lack of retention of documents and his habit of ripping papers when he was done with them.

The ex-president frequently ripped up official documents so hundreds of pages that arrived at the Archives were taped back together while others came to them still in pieces. 

Charles Tiefer, former counsel to the House of Representatives, said if there is ‘willful and unlawful intent’ to violate the Act by people concealing or destroying public records, they would face up to three years in prison.    

‘You can’t prosecute for just tearing up papers,’ he said. ‘You would have to show him being highly selective and have evidence that he wanted to behave unlawfully.’ 

‘Mike Pence is a good man’: What Ivanka said to Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg in the Oval Office after former VP rebuffed Donald Trump’s demands to reject Electoral College votes 

Ivanka Trump announced ‘Mike Pence is a good man’ after he denied her father’s request to reject Electoral College votes that would formalize Joe Biden’s 2020 victory. 

She made the comments after a meeting on January 6 last year when President Trump was in the Oval Office with her and Vice President Mike Pence’s national security adviser Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg on a telephone call with Pence.   

The revelation of her comment comes just 10 days after Pence revealed he hadn’t spoken to Trump since last summer.

He suggested that Jan. 6, 2021 marked a souring in their relationship. That day, ahead of the Capitol riot, Trump said that Pence ‘didn’t have the courage’ to object to the election results during Congress’ certification. 

Fox News‘ Jesse Waters asked Pence when the last time he spoke to Trump was on his show Thursday evening. 

Ivanka made the comments after a meeting on January 6 last year when President Trump was in the Oval Office with her and Vice President Mike Pence’s national security adviser

‘You know, we talked last summer,’ Pence said. ‘And, you know, I’ve said many times, it was difficult. Jan 6 was difficult. It was a tragic day in the life of the nation.’ 

‘I know I did my duty under the Constitution of the United States,’ Pence added. ‘But the president and I sat down in the days that followed that. We spoke about it, talked through it. We parted amicably.’  

Trump again told Pence that he had a duty to reject Electoral College votes that would formalize Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election, something the vice president had no authority to do in his ceremonial role in Congress that day.

‘You don’t have the courage to make a hard decision,’ Trump told Pence, according to congressional testimony. Even after Trump called him a ‘wimp,’ Pence rebuffed the demand, issuing a lengthy statement afterward laying out his conclusion that he had no power to influence the outcome.

When the call ended, Ivanka Trump turned to retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg and said, ‘Mike Pence is a good man.’

‘Yes, he is,’ Kellogg replied.

The revelation of her comment comes just 10 days after Pence revealed he hadn’t spoken to Trump since last summer

And on January 31 Trump suggested for the first time that he wanted Mike Pence to overturn the 2020 election when the vice president chaired the joint session of Congress to certify the Electoral College vote count on January 6, 2021. 

Trump pointed to efforts on Capitol Hill to change the Electoral Count Act, including firming up the language to make clear that the vice president is only there to count votes and can’t override the will of the voters. 

‘Actually, what they are saying, is that Mike Pence did have the right to change the outcome, and they now want to take that right away,’ Trump claimed. ‘Unfortunately, he didn’t exercise that power, he could have overturned the Election!’ 

Now the House committee investigating the riot wants to know what else Ivanka Trump heard and saw that day as they try to stitch together the narrative of the riots and the former president’s role in instigating them. 

There was a frantic effort by many of Trump’s top supporters to persuade him to intervene, and some directly sought to use his daughter as their conduit.

While Trump wanted Pence to object to the election certification for President Biden’s win, the former vice president saw his role in the certification as largely ceremonial

A committee aide said they are hopeful that she will soon commit to a time to meet.

Throughout her time in the White House, Ivanka Trump was known as a rare voice who could get through to her father and talk him out of bad decisions, though her success was mixed. 

The former first daughter has kept an extraordinary low profile since her father left office and has distanced herself from him and politics since moving to Florida.

But her proximity to him on Jan. 6 could provide the committee with direct access to what Trump was doing during those crucial three hours when his supporters violently stormed Capitol.

‘Ivanka Trump has details about what occurred in the lead-up to and on Jan. 6 and about the former president´s state of mind as events unfolded,’ Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla, a member of the panel, told The Associated Press.

It is highly unusual for congressional investigators to target a family member of a president, but as a senior adviser to her father, she also had a perch close to power.

‘You know, we talked last summer,’ Pence said of his relationship with Trump. ‘And, you know, I’ve said many times, it was difficult. Jan. 6 was difficult. It was a tragic day in the life of the nation’

Kellogg disclosed the exchange with the committee, but so far Ivanka Trump, who famously guards her image and public profile, has not talked to the panel.

The answers could have significant repercussions not only for Donald Trump, who is eyeing a political comeback in 2024, but for those in the Republican Party who have downplayed his role in the insurrection.

A spokeswoman for Ivanka Trump did not respond to multiple requests for comment. But in a statement issued in late January, a representative for her noted that Ivanka Trump did not speak at the rally near the White House where the then-president urged his supporters to ‘fight like hell’ as Congress convened to certify the 2020 election results, and said she still believed that ‘any security breach or disrespect to our law enforcement is unacceptable.’

Members of the committee hope to get beyond such vague assertions.

Hours after Trump’s call to Pence, Ivanka Trump joined brother Donald Trump Jr., Rudy Giuliani and Kimberly Guilfoyle under a large tent at the rally to listen to Trump’s speech.

She reportedly told aides she ‘decided to attend only because she had hoped to calm the president and help keep the event on an even keel.’

After Trump´s speech, as rioters began to smash through Capitol police barriers and break windows, the former president tweeted: ‘Mike Pence didn´t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution …’

That tweet, according to court testimony, only added to the anger fueling the mob.

Back in the White House, as staffers watched in shock at what was unfolding down Pennsylvania Avenue on television screens positioned throughout the West Wing, Trump’s attention was so rapt that he hit rewind and watched certain moments again, according to Stephanie Grisham, a former White House press secretary.

‘Look at all of the people fighting for me,’ Trump said, according to Grisham, who also served as chief of staff to first lady Melania Trump. At one point, the president was confused why staffers weren’t as excited as he was watching the unrest unfold.

Kellogg testified that staff wanted the president to take immediate action to address the violence consuming the Capitol, but Trump refused.

‘Is someone getting to potus? He has to tell protestors to dissipate. Someone is going to get killed,’ Alyssa Farrah Griffin, a former White House communications official, texted Ben Williamson, an aide to White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.

‘I’ve been trying for the last 30 minutes. Literally stormed in outer oval to get him to put out the first one. It´s completely insane,’ Williamson wrote back.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., then called Ivanka Trump, pleading that the president ‘ask people to leave.’

‘We´re working on it,’ she replied.

Trump pointed to efforts on Capitol Hill to change the Electoral Count Act, including firming up the language to make clear that the vice president is only there to count votes and can’t override the will of the voters

At that point, staffers acknowledged that despite efforts by Meadows, press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and Kellogg, the only person who could get through to him would be his daughter.

Ivanka Trump, according to testimony, went on to make at least two ‘tenacious’ attempts to reason with her father as staffers were bombarded with messages from Trump allies begging him to quell the violence.

‘Can he make a statement. I saw the tweet. Ask people to leave the (Capitol),’ Fox News host Sean Hannity texted Meadows.

But inside the West Wing, Kellogg strongly recommended that they not ask the president to appear in the press room, where a group of reporters would be waiting for him.

Former Vice President Mike Pence made clear that he didn’t believe he had the power to pick from slates of electors when he chaired the joint session of Congress on January 6, 2021 to count the electoral votes for president of the United States 

‘Apparently, certain White House staff believed that a live unscripted press appearance by the President in the midst of the Capitol Hill violence could have made the situation worse,’ lawmakers wrote in their letter to Ivanka Trump.

The president ultimately agreed to a video statement. Multiple takes were filmed but not used. In each one of the initial takes, according to the committee, he failed to ask rioters to leave.

The final video was released on Twitter at 4:17 p.m. – nearly two hours after Trump´s initial tweet criticizing Pence.

‘This was a fraudulent election, but we can´t play into the hands of these people,’ Trump said in the video. ‘We have to have peace. So go home. We love you; you´re very special.’

Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., the vice chair of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection, has said it´s hard to ‘imagine a more significant and more serious dereliction of duty’ than Trump´s failure to quell the riots.

Trump´s last words that day came at 6:01 p.m. when he tweeted that the 2020 election was ‘unceremoniously and viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly and unfairly treated for so long.’

He ended with, ‘Go home with love and in peace. Remember this day forever.’

The committee has been aggressively interviewing witnesses – nearly 500 so far – and has subpoenaed Meadows and Trump’s personal lawyer. They are asking Ivanka Trump to cooperate voluntarily.

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