Donald Trump called Josh Hawley six times on day before Capitol riot, phone logs show

Former President Donald Trump attempted to call Missouri U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley six times and had a White House operator leave three messages on the day before the Jan. 6, 2021 election certification vote and U.S. Capitol riot, according to phone logs recently released by the U.S. House committee investigating the event.

Hawley, who voted against the certification of two states' election results in the 2020 presidential contest, has said Trump also called him on the morning of Jan. 6, before Congress met to certify the election results and was interrupted by a violent mob of Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol building.

The string of missed calls on Jan. 5 show that Trump sought to speak to Missouri's then-junior Republican senator as he called other key allies and lawmakers to consolidate support ahead of the certification process, which he sought to stop in light of baseless claims of mass voter fraud.

Jan. 6:Hawley 'riled up' Capitol crowd before later fleeing attack, House committee says

Trump first attempted to call Hawley at 9:37 a.m. on Jan. 5, according to the call logs, and called twice more at 10:04 and 10:11 a.m. The White House switchboard operator left a message with Hawley around 10:18 a.m.

The former president attempted to reach Hawley again that night, calling at 9:21, 10:51 and 10:57 p.m. The White House operator left another two messages for Hawley around 9:46 p.m. and 11:13 p.m., according to the call logs.

Hawley has said he returned Trump's call on the morning of Jan. 6 but could not reach him. His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the phone logs for Jan. 5.

Hawley was not the only lawmaker Trump spoke with, or attempted to speak with, the day prior to the Capitol riot. He also sought to reach Republican U.S. Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler of Georgia, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Ted Cruz of Texas, as well as U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy; he also called several key advisers, including his attorney Rudy Giuliani and Stephen Bannon.

Hawley garnered national attention on Jan. 6 for a photo of him raising a fist toward a group of protesters outside the Capitol in an apparent gesture of solidarity, before the protest turned violent.

Later, he was briefly the focus of one of the U.S. House committee's hearings on the riot, which included the release of security footage that showed him fleeing from rioters and comments from one committee member who said he helped to "rile up" the crowd.

Galen Bacharier covers Missouri politics & government for the News-Leader. Contact him at gbacharier@news-leader.com, (573) 219-7440 or on Twitter @galenbacharier.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Trump called Josh Hawley multiple times on day before Jan. 6 riot