"the washington post" reports texts from ken cuccinelli and chad wolf, two top officials from the trump department of homeland security, those texts are missing from the period leading up to january 6th. also first on cnn, a former staffer, jeffrey clark, is cooperating with the criminal probe. trump tried to install clark as attorney general or there were discussions to install clark as attorney general in the days before january 6th. we want to get to cnn's evan perez. you broke the news on what might have the greatest legal impact here, is that the department of justice, federal investigators, are preparing a case to force trump advisers to testify, basically to get around claims of executive privilege. what exactly is happening and what could this give investigators access to? >> well, good morning, john. this would give access to some of the closest people around the former president. this is a major step that the justice department is preparing to take, which is something that they didn't even do during the mueller investigation, for instance. and what they're preparing to do is e

ken cuccinelli likewise said he followed all the departments regulation in turning his government phone, and that it was dhs, not him, who raced messages as part of standard security procedures. as hillary clinton staffer said, my head will maybe explodes, maybe, on air, it will randomly explode. here is barbara mcquade, former u.s. attorney, msnbc legal analyst, barbara, you tweeted this about this report and the missing text quote, i'm beginning to notice a pattern. lay out the pattern potentially and how it could be a problem. >> yeah, zerlina, in a working government, when you work for a large bureaucracy, sometimes there are errors like this, human errors, and at some point the pattern stands up and you begin to wonder whether there is not some intentional force at work here. we have these missing text messages with chad wolf and ken cuccinelli, and cuccinelli is actually somebody who is very involved in the january six plotting, at least procedurally. we saw it at one of those hearings, he was someone who suggested to mike pence by email, mike pence's aides, that he received a bri

can you have just make sure that ken, meaning ken cuccinelli, knows about this. i said fine. i would pass that along to him. i eventually contacted ken cuccinelli later that evening. >> you were in the white house. how crucial, olivia, was cuccinelli himself to trump's efforts, his attempted efforts to overturn the election? >> well, look, cuccinelli was definitely in the inner circle when it came to trump circles. i saw him in the west wing very often. and, you know, the fact that he had this conversation speaks to the extent that he was communicating about these potential legal actions and some of these crazy sort of conspiracy ideas being pushed out of this inner circle. and i'll say this, i would hope that we would be able to see some of the communications and really figure out what went on. and i think all of this, i want to point out, speaks to the importance of the january 6th select committee's work in this investigation. because all of these things we would not know about or realize the extent of this entire effort that went on to stop the peaceful transfer of power

ken cuccinelli would have left with the administration later that month with the changeover. and when they did, they handed in their government phones and they say it was dhs that was then in charge of the records and how they preserved them and that they wiped their phones. that is standard so they're not necessarily pinning this on cuccinelli and wolf themselves, but the fax is these messages that could have provided more insight to the committee as they pieced together the evidence of that day particularly why law enforcement was not more responsive as we reported here before, we know that there were armed officers standing in the basement of the reagan building just blocks from the capitol waiting for a command to leave and go to the capitol that never came. all these messages would be key in understanding the events of the day and the lack of response that allowed the insurrection to rise to the fever pitch that it did. and now, because these messages are also missing, that's one more key piece of information from the department of homeland security, also including secre

here's a remind er of what acting ag richard donoghue testified that trump ordered ken cuccinelli to do. listen to this. >> mr. cuccinelli was on the phone to dhs at the time. it was on speakerphone, and the president essentially said ken, i'm sitting here with the acting attorney general. he just told me it's your job to seize machines and you're not doing your job. >> hmm. so these texts could actually hold some critical information for investigators, right, if that's all part of it. >> yeah, i mean, if you remember this meeting took place on december 31st. it was on new year's eve. so just, you know, a week before january 6th. and trump was still pushing this idea of trying to get the department of justice to announce some investigations into voter fraud to seize these voting machines, and obviously, you know bill barr when he was attorney general had said publicly there was no voter fraud, he then resigned, and the acting attorney general and the deputy attorney general were both in these meetings with trump saying that there was nothing to this and they were not going to do this

on let us start with the ken cuccinelli, chad, wolf missing text. when we know about that and what are we to make of that? >> well, chris, it was a surprise to me and my great partner and colleague maria steady when we discovered that not only were secret service texts missing, tons of them, or the period that is considered one of the most calamitous and closely investigated moments in our democracy, at least in the century, they were missing, but also we learned that the inspector general who did not mention to congress for almost. a year that these documents were missing, also didn't happen to mention that he was notified in february that the senior most leaders of the department of homeland security, they're texts were also missing in a reset, surprise, surprise, a reset of phones. it sounds very similar to the secret service situation. chad wulf was the acting secretary of the department of homeland security under donald trump. can cuccinelli was the acting deputy secretary. both of them are under intense pressure from donald trump in the days l

so, look at why the leadership of dhs, acting secretary chad wolf and, acting deputy ken cuccinelli, apparently have had their texts deleted it now. so, there should be a criminal probe. and if they had done nothing wrong, they will be exonerated. and then, we should start raining down subpoenas on these people. because, we can't just sit and wait, and hope we're gonna get text messages. they need to be placed under oath. they need to be asked about two things. one, the how and why of these deleted text messages. and number two, okay, we want to know everything you spoke with, you communicated with, you dm with, you texted with on and around january 6th. it's -- go ahead. >> glenn, if the messages are not able to be retrieved, and under oath, they can say, can't remember, don't remember, it was a year and a half ago. what can you really get them for, right? they knew that deleting these things was going to look horrible, but if they chose to delete them anyway, then wouldn't that tell you that they think they can get away with doing this? >> two things, steph. one, if they texted to

ken cuccinelli, thanks for dropping in. >> good to be with you commission in. you have a good week in. >> shannon: youtube. confirming that he recently fathered twins with a senior executive at one of the companies. elon in on my mask is trying to build on his temple $4 million bid for twitter. he is terminating the acquisition because he believes twitter has breached portions of the deal. twitter is a not so fast. correspondent christina coleman has the latest night from los angeles. good evening, christina. >> ima, shannon. elon musk attorneys allege that the public disclosures about the public delay users are with the false materially misleading. in an sec filing friday, they said, "twitter is not complied with its contractual obligations. for nearly two months, mr. mask and sort the data into information necessary to make an assessment of the prevalence of faith or spam accounts on twitter's platform. they want to say twitter expelled or refused to provide this information. sometimes twitter has ignored mr. musk's request. sometimes it has rejected them for

trump's then acting homeland security chief chad wolf and his top deputy, ken cuccinelli, now their text messages are missing. what is going on, do you think, james? what is your take on this? do you think the voters are focusing on these january 6th hearings that they're having an impact? >> i'm one of the very few americans that actually had a good deal of contact with the secret service because of my time with president clinton and also my wife who assisted president bush and counseled vice president cheney. those guys are unbelievably professional. they don't get involved. they really don't try to be your friend. you know, they're nice enough but they have their own culture. i was always impressed by the secret service. they just ruined it. this guy ornato is the most unprofessional person you can imagine. i actually kind of feel sorry for a lot of the agents they knew, probably a lot of o'them e retired now, who really had pride and justifiable priede in that organization. the disgrace they're bringing on it is one of the saddest things i've seen. that's a universal thing until the

text messages are missing from the two top homeland security, acting deputy secretary ken cuccinelli. they too were purportedly lost in a reset of their government phones. nick mulvaney who served as acting white house chief of staff in the prior administration had this to say about it. >> it's weird and it's getting a little bit weirder. when i left the white house, i had to leave my work phone there. if the same was true with ken, he would have to turn over that work phone to somebody else and he would not have been in control of it since he left the administration. so again, does it look weird from the outside? does it look somewhat nefarious, yes. >> it certainly does seem strange, all of it as does kevin mccarthy's seemingly amnesia about who he spoke to on the sings after the president told supporters he was going to the capitol with them. >> cassidy hutchinson testified -- >> so we're going to january 6th. >> you know we're in a recession too, right? >> she testified that you called her after donald trump told his supporters that they were going to go to the capitol, and you we

"washington post" reporting that text messages from wolf and his deputy ken cuccinelli were lost from their government devices. wolf said he handed over his phone intact when he resigned after january 6th. meanwhile, the house minority leader, kevin mccarthy, who cassidy hutchinson said was among one of the leaders who pleaded for trump to call supporters off, claim he doesn't remember calling her. >> if i talked to her, i don't remember it. if it was coming up here, i don't think i wanted a lot of people coming up to the capitol. but i don't remember the conversation. >> reporter: and today is scheduled to be the last day for the house of representatives before they leave on their long august recess. and that means the committee is not expected to have any public work until september hearings, which are planned in the next few months. and that means committee members are going to be working behind closed doors preparing for the secretary hearings. casey, i just spoke with congressman jamie raskin of maryland. he is specifically focused on extremist groups to cause chaos here january

former president donald trump's acting homeland security secretary wolf and acting deputy secretary, ken cuccinelli, are missing for a key period, leading up to the january 6th attack on the capital, according to three people. this discovery of missing records for the senior most homeland security officials, which has not been previously reported, increases the volume of potential evidence that has vanished, regarding the time around the capitol attack. we will have more on this reporting later in a few minutes, actually, as we develop it. i am going to continue with our scheduled discussion with o'rourke, texas candidate for governor. we'll be back to this for in a few minutes. the day, after 19 teachers children and two teachers -- were news conference in uvalde where he presented but turned out to be a completely false account of what happened inside the school. our next guest, beto or work, confronted the governor that day, telling him the time to stop the next shooting is right now. >> the time to stop the next shooting is right. no and you're doing nothing. you are all bringing up

former president donald trump's acting homeland security secretary wolf and acting deputy secretary, ken cuccinelli, are missing for a key period, leading up to the january 6th attack on the capital, according to three people. the day after, 19 children and two teachers were killed at a elementary school, governor abbott presented a news conference where he presented what's turned out to be a completely false account of what happened inside the school. that o'rourke confronted the governor that telling him the time to stop the next shooting is right now. >> sir, you are out of line. sir, you are out of line! sir, you are out of line. please leave this auditorium. i can't believe you are -- to come make it a political issue! >> the man who a great who called bed o'rourke a sick son of a bitch seems to now agree with federal work. that was the republican mayor of uvalde while protecting the republican governor from criticism. but now the mayor in the city council unveiled a are unanimously urging them abbott to raise the minimum age for buying assault weapons, like the one used by the 18 y

cuccinelli are missing for a key period leading up to the u.s. capitol attack. they were allegedly lost in a reset of their phones when they left their jobs last year. inspector general jose could fiery knew about the missing that messages but did not apparently alert congress or investigate revelation follows the discovery the january 6th texts from secret service agents were also deleted. >> still ahead, we're speaking live with one of the members of the women's rowing team here after they set a record traveling from san francisco to hawaii. they were fast. why one of the women says her daughter was the brave one. bla based in danville. >> wow. earlier this week we told you about the amazing feat for women were able to accomplish. they set a record after rowing all the way from california to hawaii. >> they call themselves the last. 35 team, the women road more than 2400 nautical miles from san francisco to honolulu. finishing the trip and 34 days and 14 hours the lat 35 squad is now the female team to complete that journey. >> and joining us n

also this morning, "the washington post" reports texts from chad wolf and ken cuccinelli, these are two top officials from the trump department of homeland security, these texts are missing from the period leading up to january 6th. >> cnn has also learned that the january 6th committee plans to share 20 transcripts from his witnesses with justice department investigators. the committee also seems to be zeroing in on former trump cabinet officials. of particular interest, conversations among those officials about possibly invoking the 25th amendment to remove trump from office. >> joining us now is johnwood, a former senior investigator for the january 6th select committee. he is running as an independent in missouri for the senate there. john, thank you so much for being with us. so, it was cnn's exclusive reporting, the department of justice is preparing to make a case to get around executive privilege, to basically force the testimony, to be prepared to force the testimony of key trump advisers. what does this tell you about where they are? where this federal investigation is? >> yea

cuccinelli. missing. those texts from the days leading up to january 6th could have been critical to understanding what the dhs knew about the threat to the capitol. but just like in the secret service texts, they were deleted when their phones were updated. once again, the officials involved knew about it for months before telling congress. this morning both men are tweeting about this story, insisting they followed protocol, and blaming the ds for wiping their phones. nevertheless, as more and hear of this is uncover -- more and more of this is uncovered, the burden on investigators, including those at the justice department, keeps getting heavier. as nbc news has learned, what attorney general merrick garland has called the department's most ranging investigation ever, maybe pushing doj to the breaking point. quote, in conversations with nbc news in recent months, more than a dozen sources familiar with the sprawling january 6th investigation expressed varying degrees of worry about whether th

"washington post" reports texts from ken cuccinelli and chad wolf, two top officials from the trump department of homeland security, are missing from the period leading up to january 6th. and also first on cnn, a former doj staffer who worked with jeffrey clark at the agency is now cooperating with the criminal probe. trump discussed installing clark as attorney general in the days before january 6th. joining us now is mick mulvaney, former acting chief of staff in the trump white house who testified before the january 6th committee yesterday. we appreciate you being with us. it is not often we get someone at your level who just appeared before the committee. so if you can, just describe the process inside that room. >> yeah, thanks, good morning to both of you. thank you for having me. it was extraordinarily professional, if you've ever been through a deposition, it was very similar to that, a deposition from the civil case. four or five lawyers from the committee, lasted about two and a half hours. very well prepared lawyers, very courteous, no animosity at the table. the one thing i guess t

he said fine, i understand, can you make sure that me and ken cuccinelli, knew about this. i would pass that on to him, i eventually contacted him later that evening, and i said this is what the president told me. if you guys have anything, bring it to our attention, let me know. he said thank, you that was it. >> mr. cipollone left the meeting, and convinced the president to not appoint mr. clark, but he did not think the president had accepted the truth about the election. sure enough, all of the same debunked theories appeared in a speech at the ellipse three days later. >> in the state of arizona, over 36,000 ballots were illegally cast by non citizens. 11, 000, 600 more ballots and votes were counted. more than there were actual voters, do you see that? in wisconsin, corrupt democrat run cities deployed more than 500 illegal unmanned, unsecured drop boxes, which collected a minimum of 91,000 on lawful boats. >> mr. donahue, mr. rosen, mr. angle, and others, stop president trump's efforts. if the republican allies pushed throughout december, made its way to the voters a

cuccinelli were lost from their government-issued electric devices. wolf said he handed over his phone in tact when he resign after january 6. meanwhile, the house minority leader, kevin mccarthy, whom cassidy hutchinson said was among the leaders who pleaded with trump to call it off, he says he doesn't remember it. >> i don't think i wanted a lot of people coming to the capitol, but i don't remember the conversation. >> reporter: and we're learning more about the timeline of when the inspector general from the department of homeland security first learned that the text messages from the secret service may have been deleted around january 5th or 6th. and it was a long time before he alerted anyone in congress about that. he knew as early as may of 2021 that the text messages may have been deleted. it took him more than a year to inform congress of that problem. that's part of the reason january 6 members are so skeptical about this timeline and what answers to many of these questions. ryan nobles, cnn, on capitol hill. >>> a bill that would ban assau

cuccinelli, also went missing for a key period leading up to the insurrection. the dhs was reportedly aware of these missing tax, but they didn't do anything to investigate it. i am taking, like, you are a dhs official, you just saw a crime take place, this attempted coup, you don't think it might be who view to say, hey guys, don't believe finding, even if there was a migration, let's wait it out, let's see where it goes. it's either gross incompetence, or, a cover-up. it's gotta be one or the other. >> sure, first of all, i don't really text messages. i blocked you, ayman, so i don't this year texas anymore. i couldn't deal with it. i should show them on our. secondly, there was all phony and angered nature -- look, why would the dhs, where the secret service newly-and a text message, forget a migration -- why would they were hold those as valuable potential pieces of evidence, because they are law enforcement agencies, especially the secret service. and routine maintenance? oh yeah, the attack at the capitol, last time it happened was an 1814, literally, that

someone like ken cuccinelli has been an ally of the president from the beginning. i would have questions of what he's able to or going to provide but the firsthand knowledge will be very important for building either a criminal case but this dereliction of duty point that the committee is moving toward, this question of did the president simply violate his oath of office and ought he serve as president again. >> and defying that subpoena might have helped grease the works a little bit. thanks so much to both of you. >> the governor of kentucky, this is such a sad story, has called overnight flooding some. worst in the state's history. the pictures just devastating. we'll have an update coming up. g to ask you, carl. does your firm offer personalized index invnvesting? hmm? so i can remove a stock that doesn't align wiwith my goals. i'm a broker, , not a barista. what about managing gains and lolosses to b be more tax efficient? not a wizard either. looks like schwab personalized indexing can. schwaaab! learn more about personalized indexing at schwab today. if you

cuccinelli, that their texts have gone missing. and the department of homeland security told the inspector general, so this independent watchdog that overlooks that agency in february, that these texts were lost in a reset of their phones, whenever they left the trump administration. so now, the hill is finding out about it, this is basically the exact same pattern that we saw a few weeks ago, related to another part of the department of homeland security and the secret service. where secret service messages were essentially just went proof. they were gone. and they were lost, deleted, in a migration progress, that's what the agency had said so far. so the house committee reaction so far to this is strong, chairman bennie thompson of the house select committee says this is extremely troubling, and clearly, the secret service has questions that they're going to have to get answered, for the house select committee and there will be questions for the people at the top of the dhs as well at the end of the trump administration. >> okay,

they were sent by then acting homeland security secretary chad wolf and acting deputy secretary ken cuccinelli. the department says the messages were deleted after the officials turned in their phones. the chair of the january 6 committee says it is extremely troubling that the same thing happened at dhs and the secret service. the u.s. house of representatives voted to restore a ban on automatic weapons, often used -- on semiautomatic weapons, often used in mass shootings. the vote was along party lines. democrats and republicans debated the merits of the man -- the van -- the ban. >> my colleagues are proving yet again that they want to strip law-abiding citizens of their rights. the ban is unconstitutional and will impact american life. >> you have the right to keep and bear arms, but you don't have the right to own weapons design to mow down people. we have a responsibility to try and stop mass shootings. nicole: a ban on assault-style weapons was enacted in 1994 but expired in 2004. previous attempts to renew it failed and the bill is expected to stall in the senate. the house approved wi

cuccinelli. the situation closely resembles the recent revelations of the secret service may have also deleted and failed to preserve text messages that may be relevant to the january six investigation. including, from the phones of agents who were signed to donald trump on the day of the insurrection. for more on this, i am joined now by his betsy who is a national correspondent for politico. she is also an msnbc contributor. so, betsy, let's start with these deleted text messages from the phones of secret service agents and homeland security agents. last night the washington post published an update to the situation. this is with the secret service. quote, the department of homeland security's chief watchdog scrapped their best to get of teams effort to collect agency phones to try recovered to lead a secret service texas here. according to four people with knowledge of the decision, and internal records reviews by the national post, the washington post, what do you think of this? our alarm bel

cuccinelli and chad wolfe. the reason this is important is they thheld high profile agenci and also for what happened on january 6th. and, you know, honestly, in the days that followed as well. the issue here is different from what we've been reporting with the secret service. so the issue here -- again, this is according to the "washington post" and information that we've collected at cnn as well, is that these two men when they left their posts gave their cell phones back to the department of homeland security and then apparently those were wiped to presumably hand off to another person, or at least because these two men had left the department of homeland security. chad wolfe is responding on twitter saying he gave his cell phone back to the department of homeland security, it was fully loaded. he says he abided by all records retention laws. i chereached out to cuccinelli we have not heard back. this is riling members of oversight commits, basically one of their main jobs is to oversee the dhs watchdog. thi

cuccinelli. now they're preparing for a legal fight as it looks to compel several members of trump's inner circle to testify about the former president's actions and the conversations surrounding january 6th. joining me now is a defense prosecuting attorney shan wu. shan, good to see you. >> good to see you. >> let's talk about the court battle by the dojle they're preparing to deal with the executive privilege. what is the chance they can win that battle? >> i think it's a very good chance they will win that battle. the president is on their side starting with the landmark case of nixon's preceding back in wate watergate. they say it's going to fail as to a particularized need in a criminal case, and that's what the criminal need would be facing them here. i think also the issue on executive privilege is really -- it's really a question of delay. that's the big problem for the justice department. i think garland is uniquely suited to lead the department on a legal battle. it's going to take time

cuccinelli. "the washington post" says messages from both officials from a, quote, key period leading up to the january 6th attack are gone and that while the inspector general was told that the messages were missing back in february the ig didn't push the department on why the texts were deleted nor did he try to retrieve those messages. these missing records are just a part of a mountain of missing pieces of the puzzle related to january 6th that pose a challenge for the january 6th select committee as well as the justice department's probe into the insurrection. that poses a -- to investigate the actions of the inner circle. a spokesperson for the select committee telling nbc news that the panel is sharing 20 witness interview transcripts with the department of justice. that news was first reported by politico which adds this, quote, the committee did not indicate which transcripts would be part of the initial tranche provided to the justice department, however prosecutors recently deposed two

cuccinelli from the days leading up to the january 6 attack. the crucial period where the house really wants to create a complete record of what happened especially in leadership of important agencies like dhs. the house basically was able to say that they learned this just now but this is something known within dhs and also by their inspector general watch dog for sometime now. and this pattern of learning about these text messages quite late after they have gone missing has already happened once to the house committee. this happened with the secret service recently, too, where text messages of key agents were also lost because of a technical migration within the department. so the chairman bennie thompson said this was extremely troubling in a statement last night and there is the possibility they could have gotten better records he says from senior administration officials if they had known this earlier. perhaps at the time they interviewed wolf. >> i see. okay. and then you and evan perez also have exclusive reporting the doj is preparing f

cuccinelli are. missing they both said they deleted their technologies after they turned in their phones when they left the department. has the committee spoken t either will for cuccinelli, and what can you tell us about efforts to recover these whole host of dhs texts that have been missing in addition to the secret service messages that are also missing? >> we are determined to retrieve all missing texts, and to assemble all of the evidence that is technologically possible to access. and we are planning to do that, anybody who has try to defy the legal authority of the committee by concealing evidence has been overcome by other people coming forward to help us get that evidence. so i continue to have confidence that we will, indeed, be able to find it. what is troubling to me is that the department of homeland security is supposed to be keeping a close eye on domestic and violent extremist groups, and domestic terrorist plots. and so, my first thought when i heard that these texts at the top of th

chad wolf, and ken cuccinelli, and another third official from homeland security department, from that key period. this is all as part of an investigation as to what led -- what these top officials were doing in the leadup to january 6th and obviously given the fact there are missing text messages from another component of dhs, the secret service, it raises questions as to why these messages are missing. "the washington post" reports that at least part of the explanation appears to be that the messages were wiped out when the men left their jobs and government and the phones were essentially were wiped. >> there are laws about this. stay with us. i want to bring in norm eisen, especially counsel to house lawmakers during trump's first impeachment trial. there are record keeping laws and, by the way, this is not the first time we heard of something in this category given the secret service text messages, is there any excuse to wipe out text messages even as an administration is transitioning or are you concerned that laws were broken here? >> jim, thanks for having me back. good morning

cuccinelli from the days leading up to the january 6th attack on the capitol are missing. much like those missing secret service texts that the dhs inspector general was notified about in january, the text messages were wiped as part of an agency phone reset when wolf and cuccinelli left their jobs in january 2021. despite being informed about the missing texts five months ago, the inspector general did not inform congress about the information and as "the post" reports notes the texts could have shed considerable light on trump's actions and plans in the weeks before the attack on the capitol that trump had been pressuring both men to help him claim the 202 election was rigged and to seize voting machines in key swing states to try to re-run the election which is not a thing you can do. for their part both claim they followed protocol and blamed dhs this. comes as committee members are hoping to speak to the members of the former cabinet. discussions are being had with john ratcliffe as well as chad wolf who resigned days after the siege on the capitol and has continued t

cuccinelli, were lost as a result of a reset. messages for the period leading up to january 6th. the inspector general's office was reportedly told you about didn't press for details or recovery efforts, didn't tell congress for months, but that, of course, is on the heels of thousands of secret service texts being erased as part of a device reset. when you look at this, jennifer, as a former prosecutor, right, you're trying to piece things together to connect the dots. what do you see here? w we're talking about two law enforcement agencies and missing messages. >> it's incredibly frustrating. here you're trying to figure out what happened, you know there was evidence there, and it seems to be missing. so obviously you're going to try to see if there are other ways to get that evidence, see if you can still dig out -- sometimes technology has ways of sticking around even when you think it won't. so you obviously want to try to recover it. but then you have to look at whether you have a criminal obstruction of justice issue here.

cuccinelli apparently are also mia. dhs offering a similar excuse, that texts were lost in some sort of reset of government phones at the end of the trump administration. wolf is just the latest of trump cabinet level officials we're learning has actually talked to the house select committee. cnn has also learned that interview was several months ago. that's before investigators knew about the missing records. so, now we've got missing homeland security records along with deleted secret service text messages. just add it to the list. along with missing white house call logs and the presidential daily diary, all silent on a day we know many people were trying to reach none other than donald trump. we know key insiders were using signal, which is an encrypted messaging app, in the days before the attack. the white house photographer was specifically kept away from trump, as the mob reached the capitol. and boxes of classified documents were sent to mar-a-lago instead of the national archives where, of course, they belong.

so that is the phones of both acting secretary chad wolf and ken cuccinelli. the chairman of the house select chitty bennie thompson called this all extremely troubling this week because this news of the erased leadership text messages came a few weeks after it was clear that the secret service agent messages were also lost from around january 6. now thompson pointed out that the dhs inspector general has known about this for sometime and failed to notify congress quickly and that is why the additional firestorm is now coming in. so what happened at the dhs that allows for all of the federal records around january 6 to by lost. that is is one question congress has. and then why has the inspector general not been more forthcoming with congress. the secret service has pledged to cooperate and wolf has said that he's been following protocol, but even so another congressional authority, the senate judiciary committee is asking the justice department to look into this as well. so a lot here. >> a lot there. i mean the widening mystery, what has happened to all of t

cuccinelli may know more about it. >> said to the secretary get ken cuccinelli on the phone and she did in very short order. he was on the phone, the number two at dhs at the time and on the speaker phone and the president essentially said, ken, i'm sitting here with acting attorney general. he just told me it is your job to seize machines and you're not doing your job. and mr. cuccinelli responded. >> mr. rosen, did you ever tell the president that the department of homeland security could seize voting machines? >> no, certainly not. >> seizing voting machines. one of the remarkable, crazy, pick your word for it things that donald trump considered if his effort to block joe biden's inauguration from an evidence standpoint you're building a case. why does it matter? >> it does matter because of how central the point is. number one they have to get it as part of a criminal investigation but you know there's a few different problems with the department of homeland security going back to when i worked there back in 2009. i think number one congress ought to be taking a look at this. it is

ken cuccinelli, senior fellow for immigration answer -- and homeland security at the center for a new america, was the acting deputy secretary of dhs and acting head of uscis under the trump administration. so at the receiving end of a lot of litigation against the previous administration. joe ed low -- joe edlow is founder of the edlow group and has long experienced both on the legislative and executive branches in dealing with immigration. finally, andrew arthur, resident fellow at the center for immigration centers -- studies, former immigration judge, former hill staffer, has written substantial portions of immigration law, and has been writing about this issue extensively. before we are going to talk about three of the big cases in a little more detail, but before we get to that, i wanted to ask ken and joe, what was it like being at the receiving end of this litigation onslaught in the previous administration? how did that affect your acting, thinking, planning, etc.? ken: first, you start with tie selection. if i picked green, they were going to sue me. it was a presumption on

here are three people who have a lot of experience and knowledge in these issues, ken cuccinelli, the senior fellow for homeland sick parity -- security, was acting head of uscis under the trump administration. again, on the receiving end of a lot of this -- against the previous administration. the former general counsel to the u.s. and former actinghas le legislative and executive branches in dealing with immigration. finally, andrew is resident fellow at the center for immigration studies. a former immigration judge. he is written substantial portions of immigration law and has been writing about this issue quite extensively. we're going to talk about three of the big cases in a little more detail, but i wanted to ask you, what was it like being on the receiving end of this litigation onslaught in the previous administration? how did that affect your actions , thinking, planning, etc.? >> you start with tie selection. it was a presumption on everything we did. i was also state attorney general, so i have been on the other of the state dealing with the federal government as well. i a

cuccinelli have been deleted. department of homeland security notified the agencies inspector general in late february that wolf's and cuccinelli texts were lost in a re-set of their government phones when they lost their jobs in january of 2021. joseph cavary did not explain why they did not preserve the records nor seek ways to recover the last data. according to the four people briefed on the watch dog's action, the ig also failed to alert congress of the potential destruction of government records. so ari, first of all, government records are meant to be protected under the law. but second, what is it these texts that might be particularly relevant to the investigation. >> great question. i mean, number one, we always say you have to investigate this stuff so we can't just assume or conclude what is going on. what we can say, i think the premise of your question is, this is unusual. it does break practice. the wash dogs are there to control this kind of things and when they find a hole and don't do the reporti

cuccinelli. and these checks are from, you guessed it, a key period right before the attack on the capitol. so, i have a friend with me because we need to break this down. msnbc contributor, joe windex, is here. she's the author of the watergate girl and co-host of igm politics. jill, first, it was that the secret service of the lead messages when they were getting their new phones because they didn't know any better. okay. then texts from chad wolf and the coach went missing, but none of those texts were worth finding. does anyone on the planet believe this is a coincidence? because i don't. >> well, maybe donald trump believes it because he believes a lot of stuff that nobody else believes. i don't believe it. it is not a coincidence that these particular tax are missing. it's also illegal because there is an obligation for the agency heads to maintain these federal records. there's a federal records act and there is a provision of the federal records act that makes it a crime to not maintain t

cuccinelli. the department says the messages were deleted after the officials turned in their phones. the chair of the january 6th committee, bennie thompson, says it's extremely troubling that the same thing happened at dhs and the secret service. the u.s. house of representatives headed toward a vote this evening to restore a ban on semi-automatic weapons, often used in mass shootings. democrats and republicans split down party lines amid claims and counter-claims on the merits of a ban. rep. fishbach: my colleagues are proving yet again that they want to strip law-abiding citizens of their second amendment rights. the latest so-called assault weapons ban is unconstitutional and will impact other aspects of american life. rep. mcgovern: you have the right to keep and bear arms but you don't have the right to ow weapons that are used to mow people down indiscriminately. rights come with responsibilities and we have the responsibility to try and stop mass shootings. judy: a ban on assault-style w

cuccinelli. meantime, new signs that a justice department investigation of the january 6 insurrection is gaining traction. and focusing in on former president trump's actions. here is cnn's ryan nobles. >> reporter: the department of justice is inching closer and closer to former donald trump. new cnn reporting reveals that prosecutors are girding for a big fight over executive privilege. to force witnesses to testify about the role trump may have played in the events leading up to january 6. >> when courts have considered these separation of powers issues in the context of criminal cases, they haven't really looked favorably toward the white house and the presidency. now the biggest and the most obvious one is the united states versus nixon. >> reporter: trump himself is not considered to be a target yet. but the list of trump officials who have already cooperated with the select committee and are now cooperating with the doj is growing. it comes as the select committee has begun the process of

ken cuccinelli, senior fellow for homeland security at the center for a new america, was the accurate -- acting deputy secretary of dhs under the trump administration, so at the receiving end of a lot of litigation against the previous administration a. joetta low is founder of the -- joe edlow is founder of the edlow group and has experience in the legislative branch of with immigration a. finally, a former immigration judge, former hill staffer, has written substantial portions of immigration law, and has been writing about this issue extensively. before we are going to talk about three of the big cases -- before we get to that, i wanted to ask ken and joe, what was it like being at the receiving end of this law -- onslaught in the previous administration? ken: if i picked green, they were going to sue me. it was a presumption on everything we did literally from the get go. i was a state attorney general. i've been at the state level dealing with the federal government. that was the best job i ever had, being in attorney general. when the litigation rolls in, and at uscis, we were a

cuccinelli, has responded to a report in the washington post but their text messages leading him to january 6th and vanished. by saying, they did not do it. both former officials took to twitter to blame the former department they worked for, dhs, for the missing text. with wolf adding, quote, dhs has all my texts, emails, phone logs, and schedules. speaking of wolf, the ap report of the select committee has reached out to him could potentially appear. as an act of talks are looking to bring in another high-ranking trump official, including the former director of national intelligence, john ratcliffe. even secretary mike pompeo. not only that, former treasury secretary and enthusiast of holding uncut bells, stephen mnuchin, has now also testified. as has former she's of staff, mulvaney, who tells nbc news he was asked about text messages he sent to current rnc chair, ronna mcdaniel, days after the election. >> instant tweets and tax on january six. we will talk about that. there is also heavy involvement in the trump campaign. they wanted to know the discussions i had leading up to

cuccinelli, are missing. for a key period of time, guess when? leading up to the january 6th attack on the capitol. and as the panel is focusing on gathering new information, it is also a great to a formal process to share evidence and witness transcripts with the justice department. earlier today, committee chairman, benny thompson, described how that process will work. >> the process as we see it, you know, you gotta tell us who you are interested in, and will make it available. >> meanwhile, senate democrats are pushing to bring their climate and health care package to the floor for a vote. this bill is a major part of biden's agenda. now, the pressure is on to make sure that every democrat in the senate, including kyrsten sinema, is on board. >> every member in a few days to read the bill. it's a 700-page bill, and we will all be talking, hopefully we'll get 50 votes. >> and today, we learned that the u.s. economy shrank for the second straight quarter, that of course is fuming fears of recession, but of

cuccinelli, those texts are messaging as well. those messages were also sent in the days leading up to january 6th. but any lost data could be important as the january 6th committee received testimony that trump wanted the department of homeland security to seize voting machines in the aftermath of the 2020 election. and joining me now to talk about this, olivia troy, former homeland security and counterterrorism advisoer to former vice president mike pence, and jennifer rogers, a cnn legal analyst, former federal prosecutor. olivia, when you heard the texts from chad wolf and ken kuch kneenell were missing it sounds like the department of homeland security is now the department of new phone, who dis? >> yeah, i've got to say, what the heck is going on over there? >> right. >> i don't understand this. and also, look, i've worked on technical migration in the u.s. government. i know the extent of the planning that goes into these things, and so i'm just -- i'm just very confused about whether it was a failure of leadership here, fu