In the midst of the violent insurrection and attack on the Capitol, the White House switchboard connected a call to a phone number linked to a Jan. 6th rioter, according to former House Republican congressman and Senior Technical Advisor for the January 6th Committee, Denver Riggleman. In an interview with 60 Minutes correspondent Bill Whitaker, the ex-military intelligence officer told the host that “I only know one end of that call. I don’t know the White House end, which I believe is more important.”
Riggleman went on to tell the host:
“The American people need to know that there are link connections that need to be explored more.”
The call was uncovered after Riggleman assembled a small team of data miners and analysts for the committee to comb through 20 million lines of data — emails, social media posts, phone records, and texts — to explore who did what leading up to and on January 6th, CBS News reported.
“You get a real “A-HA!” moment when you see that the White House switchboard had connected to a rioter’s phone while it’s happening,” Riggleman said.
A former National Security Agency contractor, the Virginia businessman says he and his team followed “digital clues,” like phone records tied to the insurrection – combing through data and creating graphs connecting those in the administration to those who participated in the attack on democracy – before, during, and after the attack on the Capitol.
“From my perspective, you know, being in counterterrorism – you know if the White House, even if it’s a short call and it’s a connected call, who is actually making that phone call?” Riggleman wondered.
“Is there a simple, innocent explanation for that?” CBS‘s Whitaker asked
“Was it an accidental call from the White House to just happen to call a number that somebody misdialed a rioter that day, on January 6th – probably not,” Riggleman replied.
As the House Select Committee prepares to resume public testimony on this Wednesday, September 28th, it’s unknown how – and if – this latest bombshell will play a role in the hearings, and whether the receiver of the call will be revealed.
The one-term representative left the investigation in April prior to the congressional panel’s televised hearings, but a spokesperson for the committee said in a statement, “Since his departure, the Committee has run down all the leads and digested and analyzed all the information that arose from his work…and a thorough report will be published by the end of the year.”
Watch the clip below:
The White House switchboard connected a call to a rioter while the Capitol was under siege on January 6, 2021, according to former January 6 committee staffer Denver Riggleman.
“I only know one end of that call,” Riggleman said.https://t.co/U5PIrgqDV4 pic.twitter.com/cbkIFuvc6p
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) September 23, 2022
Original reporting by Keith Zubrow at CBS News.
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