The $6 million buy, a key battleground goes, bionic?

The lead starts right now.

Tonight, one of the most anticipated debates of the year, John Federman vs. Memadaz and

their one and only face-off, as this political season kicks into overdrive for candidates

nationwide, plus distraction for Democrats, the anger and outrage over a letter to President

Biden now retracted.

And Moscow shuts down an appeal to release Brittany Griner from a Russian prison.

Is there any hope left to bring the WNBA star home?

Welcome to the lead, I'm John Berman, in for Jake Tapper, and we'll get to the midterms

in just a moment, but first, a significant step for the Justice Department and its investigation

into the January 6 attack.

Justice tells CNN the DOJ is trying to force the testimony of Pat Cipollone and Patrick

Philbin, the top two lawyers from Donald Trump's White House, and hear about their conversations

with the former president.

This is exclusive, new reporting, so let's get right to CNN's Sarah Murray.

This is an attempt to break through a firewall of source that Trump is used to avoid scrutiny

of his own actions.

That's right.

The former president has cited executive privilege, attorney client privilege, and trying to

bar a lot of these top witnesses from sharing with criminal investigators looking to the

events surrounding January 6 from getting too close to conversations folks may have had

with the former president, those in his inner circle.

...