I don't think there's any question that when you go from agency to agency and find out that

key messages have been deleted, something's going on here that resembles very clearly a conspiracy.

A damning assessment from former defense secretary and CIA director Leon Panetta on the missing

messages from multiple government agencies related to the attack on the Capitol.

Ahead, the latest effort to hold top Trump administration officials accountable for the deleted

data. Meanwhile, over on Capitol Hill, there's growing bipartisan support to close loopholes in a 19th century law in hopes of preventing another January 6th.

Plus, Trump's pick for governor in Arizona takes a page right out of his playbook.

Carrie Lake is declaring victory before all the votes are counted, but then struggles to explain how her win

doesn't clash with her claims of voter fraud.

Good morning and welcome to way too early on this Thursday, August 4th. I'm Jonathan Lemire.

Thank you for being with us. The number two Democrat in the Senate is calling on the Department

of Defense to open an internal investigation into missing texts from key officials on January 6th.

In a letter yesterday, Majority Whip and Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin of Illinois

asked the DOD's Inspector General to launch a probe into the deleted communications of

several Trump-appointed officials who were tasked with deploying the National Guard during

the Capitol riot.

The letter reads this way.

The disappearance of this critical information could jeopardize efforts

to learn the full truth about January 6th. I don't know whether the failure to preserve these

critical government texts is the result of bad faith, stunning incompetence, or outdated

records management policies, but we must get to the bottom of it. On Tuesday, court records published by a watchdog group

revealed that the cell phones of top former defense officials, including the defense and army

...