This is just plain embarrassing. News organizations are tying themselves in knots to rationalize Trump's seven-hour phone records gap on Jan. 6th -- while the insurrection was taking place. Via Axios:
On Jan. 6, 2021, during an apparent seven-hour gap in White House call logs that the House select committee investigating the attack is now trying to piece together, then-President Trump's executive assistant, Molly Michael, was absent for most of the day, three sources with direct knowledge tell Axios.
Why it matters: Though sources said the Trump White House's already spotty record-keeping operation had virtually collapsed by the final weeks of his presidency, Michael's absence is a previously unreported detail that may play a role in explaining the incomplete records for a key stretch of time.
Her absence — coupled with the already shambolic state of record-keeping in the Outer Oval — also could complicate efforts to piece those details back together 14 months after that fateful day.
She wasn't missing just for the seven-hour gap. She was missing from the beginning of the day, where there was no gap.
Coming up next on CNN: "The dog ate our phone records!"