House Asks Companies to Save Jan. 6 Phone, Computer Records

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol is asking social media and telecommunications companies to preserve phone or computer records for hundreds of people who were potentially involved with efforts to “challenge, delay or interfere” with the certification that day of President Joe Biden’s victory or otherwise try to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

In a letter Monday to 35 companies, the committee’s Democratic chairman asks for the preservation “of records relating to certain individuals who hold or have held accounts with your company” from April 2020 through Jan. 31, 2021. The committee did not release the list of individuals targeted, but it includes former President Donald Trump, members of his family and several of his Republican allies in Congress, according to a person familiar with the confidential request who requested anonymity to discuss it.

“The Select Committee seeks the preservation of these records as part of its examination of the violent attack on the Capitol and the broader context of efforts to delay or interfere with the peaceful transfer of power following the 2020 election,” Chairman Bennie Thompson of Mississippi wrote in the letters to the companies, which range from cell phone giants AT&T and Verizon to social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter and TikTok to conservative and far-right platforms Parler, 4chan and theDonald.win.