The investigation into the effort to overturn the 2020 election has repeatedly shown that senior government officials’ text messages can be crucial pieces of evidence — and that they can be equally hard to obtain. 

Earlier this year, American Oversight’s lawsuit revealed that the Defense Department and the Army failed to preserve top leaders’ text messages from Jan. 6, 2021. That revelation prompted the department to impose new rules for the preservation of messages and also led to an internal investigation. This week, the Pentagon’s inspector general told Congress that it had identified “concerns” with the department’s use of phone messaging apps.

• In a letter to Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin, who in August had requested an investigation after CNN reported on American Oversight’s findings, the inspector general said the office was planning an audit of the Defense Department’s efforts to preserve electronic records and its compliance with federal law.
• The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general is also conducting an investigation of missing Secret Service texts. On Tuesday, NBC News reported that this summer, Secret Service leaders had confiscated 24 cell phones of agents involved in the Jan. 6 response and provided them to the inspector general.

Also this week, text messages obtained by CNN showed that Phil Waldron, the former Army colonel who was active in efforts to overturn the election, had in late December 2020 briefed Chief of Staff Mark Meadows about his efforts to access voting systems in battleground states. 

• CNN’s report outlines records of communications that American Oversight previously obtained and reported on that revealed the high level of involvement Waldron had in planning the Arizona Senate’s partisan and discredited election “audit.” 
• Between the election and Dec. 23, 2020, Waldron exchanged almost a dozen emails with Arizona officials, discussing ways to gain access to ballots or voting systems.
• In a Dec. 11 email to three Arizona state lawmakers working to overturn the election, Waldron suggested that someone on his team could “take a hard drive” to county elections offices, upload voter data, and “get the files to us.”
• Two days later, Waldron’s attorney sent one of the Arizona lawmakers draft language for subpoenas seeking voting information. It’s nearly identical to subpoenas Arizona state lawmakers filed demanding officials hand over voting machines. 

Threats to Democracy
This week’s scheduled hearing of the House select committee investigating Jan. 6 was postponed as Hurricane Ian hit Florida’s west coast on Wednesday. Even without a public hearing, the panel interviewed Ginni Thomas, a right wing activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Ginni Thomas — as revealed in emails and texts in recent months — pushed officials, including White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows as well as Arizona and Wisconsin lawmakers, to keep fighting to overturn the 2020 election results. She was also in touch with attorney John Eastman.

• During her interview with the committee, Thomas reportedly said she still believed the election had been stolen.
• American Oversight has been investigating Thomas’s contacts with state officials regarding the 2020 election. 

The committee is also seeking testimony from Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos regarding a phone call he had with former President Trump in July, during which Trump again asked Vos to overturn the 2020 results. Vos has sued the committee to block the subpoena.

• Back in August, Vos fired Michael Gableman, the conservative attorney he’d tapped the year before to conduct the partisan election review in an apparent attempt to appease Trump’s incessant lies about his loss. Though now without staff, the Office of Special Counsel still exists, and our lawsuits for related records are still active. 
• During a hearing this week in our lawsuit seeking to prevent further destruction of public records, an attorney representing the office said that all records (at least, the ones that weren’t destroyed) from the review would be uploaded to a public website. 
• “Hundreds of pages of documents have already been made public as the result of other American Oversight lawsuits,” wrote the Associated Press in its report on the hearing. [Maybe add a sentence here about how you can read about some of what we’ve found in the newsletter, if it’s available for people to look at?]

On the Records

DeSantis’ Office Courting Election Deniers
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office met with a right-wing group whose co-founder promoted an Islamophobic conspiracy theory about an election worker, according to records we obtained and reported on by CNN. 

• We uncovered emails showing that on Dec. 16, 2021, and Jan. 3, 2022, the governor’s office met with members of Defend Florida, an election conspiracy group that sent the office an extensive compilation of conspiracy theories about election fraud allegedly taking place in Seminole County. 
• The records come amid new revelations, as reported on by CNN, regarding the level of access that “election deniers and those who have given oxygen to their conspiracies have gained in the highest levels of DeSantis’ government.” 

Other Stories We’re Following

Threats to Democracy

• Activists flood election offices with challenges (New York Times)
• Georgia state elections board seeks FBI help in criminal investigation of voting system breach after 2020 election (CNN)
• Mike Lindell says Tina Peters ‘misconstrued’ his ties to impersonation figure (Colorado Newsline)
• Election equipment to be replaced in Coffee County after outsiders gain access (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
• As more states create election integrity units, Arizona is a cautionary tale (Washington Post) 
• Groups seeking voter ‘anomalies’ 2 years after Trump’s loss raise concerns ahead of midterm elections (NBC News)
• Alarm as Koch bankrolls dozens of election denier candidates (Guardian) 
• Youngkin and his national ambitions straddle the ‘big lie’ divide (Washington Post)

The Coronavirus Pandemic

• CDC says some nursing homes and hospitals no longer need to require universal masking (CBS News) 
• All major cruise lines will soon allow unvaccinated travelers (Washington Post)
• 4.4 million Americans have received an updated bivalent Covid-19 booster (ABC News)
• ‘Disaster to disaster’: Underinvestment in public health systems obstructs response to Covid, monkeypox, Walensky says (Stat News) 

Trump Administration Accountability

• Electoral Count Act changes become latest Trump loyalty test (Washington Post)
• Meadows texts reveal direct White House communications with pro-Trump operative behind plans to seize voting machines (CNN)
• Roger Stone promoted violence, then sought pardon after Jan. 6, evidence shows (New York Times)

In the States

• Migrant encounters at the border are higher today than they were before Gov. Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star began (Texas Tribune)
• Nearly 1,500 asylum seekers have arrived in Chicago from Texas (Chicago Tribune)
• Gadsden County commissioner appointed by Gov. DeSantis resigns after KKK costume photo emerges (Tallahassee Democrat)
• Alabama inmates strike, denouncing prison conditions (New York Times)

National News

• Biden issues major disaster declaration amid Hurricane Ian’s destruction (Politico) 
• Ten days after Hurricane Fiona, many in Puerto Rico are still without power (New York Times)
• Biden hosts conference on hunger, announces $8 billion of commitments (Washington Post)