Trump tore up records turned over to House Capitol attack committee

Some of the White House records turned over to the House committee investigating the January 6 attack were ripped up by Donald Trump, the National Archives said.

It also emerged on Tuesday that the former president thinks his own vice-president, Mike Pence, should be investigated by the committee, for failing to reject electoral college results on the fateful day.

The Archives did not say how it knew Trump had torn the records but his habit of tearing up documents has been widely reported.

Lartey and another staffer who taped records were fired by the White House that year, they said summarily.

After a process that reached the supreme court, the Archives gave more than 700 documents concerning the Capitol attack to the House committee last month.

More than 700 people have been charged over the riot, in which Trump supporters tried to stop certification of his election defeat. Eleven members of a far-right militia are charged with seditious conspiracy. More than 100 police officers were injured. Seven people died.

The committee has recommended criminal charges for two Trump associates, the former White House strategist Steve Bannon and chief of staff Mark Meadows. Bannon refused cooperation and pleaded not guilty to contempt of Congress. Meadows cooperated, then withdrew. He has not been charged.

Pence concluded that he did not have the right to reject electoral college results, and resisted pressure from Trump to do so. He was rewarded with the attentions of the mob that stormed the Capitol, some chanting for him to be hanged.

Constitutional scholars agree the vice-president does not have the right to reject results, even under the act as written.

Marc Short and Greg Jacob, close aides to Pence, have reportedly spoken to the January 6 committee in the past week. Both men were present at an infamous Oval Office meeting on 4 January when John Eastman, a constitutional scholar, tried to convince Pence he could reject electoral college results.

Trump did not comment on the Archives statement. Nor did the House committee.

ABC News reported that McEnany appeared before investigators on 13 January.

Trump was impeached but acquitted. The 25th amendment, which provides for the removal of a president incapable of fulfilling his or her duties, was not invoked. Trump continues to claim the election was stolen.