January 6 committee investigating whether Trump used burner phones as the riot unfolded: Washington Post report

• White House call records show a seven-hour gap on Jan 6, 2021, The Washington Post reported.
• The Jan 6 Committee is investigating if Donald Trump used "burner phones", the report says.

The House January 6 Committee is investigating whether former President Donald Trump used burner phones to communicate as the attack on the Capitol unfolded on January 6, 2021, The Washington Post reported.

According to the report there is a gap of more than seven hours in the official White House call logs from January 6.

The gap is puzzling, as it corresponds to the time when several top Republicans are extensively reported to have talked to the president by phone as pro-Trump rioters were attacking Congress.

The article was reported by the Post's veteran investigative reporter Bob Woodward and White House correspondent Robert Costa.

The House committee, per two unnamed sources who spoke to Woodward and Costa, began investigating how this could have happened.

Possibilities included that Trump used backchannels, phones of aides or personal phones that can be used then disposed: "burner phones," the sources said.

The Post on Tuesday published images of the White House call logs from January 6, showing that Trump communicated with key advisors that morning, including two calls with former chief strategist Steve Bannon.

The records say Trump made his final officially logged call at 11.17 a.m., to an unidentified person. A gap follows, then the next official call is at 6.54 p.m. to called Dan Scavino, his deputy chief of staff and a former digital communications chief.

It means that there is no official record of calls made by Trump when his supporters attacked police and breached the Capitol. The riot delayed Joe Biden's certification as president and sent lawmakers and Vice President Mike Pence fleeing for safety.

CNN first reported in February that the Jan 6 commission was scrutinizing gaps in White House call logs Trump's use of his aides' phones, claiming that he frequently used Scavino's cellphone to make calls.

The committee is focussing on the question of whether Trump and his aides illegally conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Trump has continued to maintain that the 2020 election was stolen from his after leaving office, though has produced no convincing evidence in support if the claim.

Trump in a statement to the Post denied using "burner phones."

"I have no idea what a burner phone is, to the best of my knowledge I have never even heard the term," Trump said.

A Trump spokeswoman told the Post that Trump had nothing to do with the records and had assumed any and all of his phone calls were recorded and preserved.

Though Trump said he had never heard of a burner phone, his son Eric had, and even threatened a lawsuit based on a report alleging that they were used on January 6.