Trump White House Contacted Jan. 6 Rioter During Insurrection, Phone Records Show

Former Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-Virginia) called uncovered incoming and outgoing messages from former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows a “roadmap to an attempted coup,” in reference to the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack.

“The Meadows text messages show you an administration that was completely eaten up with a digital virus called QAnon conspiracy theories,” Riggleman told 60 Minutes host Bill Whitaker during an interview that aired on Sunday. “You can look at text messages as a roadmap, but it’s also a look into the psyche of the Republican Party today.”

Riggleman served as the head of the House select committee investigating the Capitol riots’ data analyst team before stepping down in April.

“It sounded like, honestly, the way that they talked, and the way that they referred to this, this ‘epic struggle,’ almost sounded like me looking at foreign terrorist groups in my past,” Riggleman said.

Riggleman detailed when the team found that a White House switchboard had connected a call to one of the January 6 rioters’ phone as the “ah-ha” moment he became convinced that the Trump administration had connections to the Capitol breech.

The January 6 committee released a statement in response to Riggleman’s interview.

“In his role on the Select Committee staff, Mr. Riggleman had limited knowledge of the Committee’s investigation,” it read. “He departed from the staff in April prior to our hearings and much of our most important investigative work. He told the Committee he was departing in order to help the people of Ukraine in their war against Russia. Since his departure, the Committee has run down all the leads and digested and analyzed all the information that arose from his work. We will be presenting additional evidence to the public in our next hearing this coming Wednesday, and a thorough report will be published by the end of the year.”