Way back in olden times, during the leadup to the 1972 election, several men broke into the Democratic campaign headquarters in the Watergate hotel in DC to steal campaign information. It's unclear whether Richard Nixon knew about the plans ahead of time, but he certainly found out about it later, and did nothing. This led to the infamous question of "what did he know, and when did he know it?".

All of this became a huge investigation, especially when it was revealed that Nixon used the advanced technology of tape recording to tape his conversations. That paranoia would become his undoing when the investigative committees and special prosecutors demanded the tapes. The damning evidence wasn't what was on the tapes, but what wasn't on the tapes: 18 1/2 minutes of blank space where a key conversation should have been:

There was other incriminating evidence on the tapes, and Nixon - facing an impeachment trial - decided to resign instead. His actions would lead to the eventual passing of the Presidential Records Act, which requires presidents to keep all records, and prevents them from destroying evidence.

Fast-forward to Jan 06, 2021. Then-still-pResident TFG had a rally by the White House in a last-ditch effort to get veep Pence to help him prevent the final step of certifying the obvious winner of the election (now-president Joe Biden). There is some video evidence from backstage at the rally, and some phone records from certain members of Congress calling TFG and asking him to call off the dogs.

He was impeached for this, but the Senate failed to get a conviction, due to hyper-partisanship (also, TFG was already out of office, which made it easy for fellow Republicans to dismiss the trial as moot). Nonetheless, a committee was formed to investigate the Jan 06 insurrection, and has been gathering evidence. Lawyers for TFG keep trying to claim "executive privilege", but the courts disagreed and he was compelled to turn over evidence, including the call logs for that day.

In a case of deja vu, there is a gap in the record. Not 18 1/2 minutes this time, but a 7 hour gap:

TFG has previously violated the Act by tearing up (and sometimes trying to flush) presidential documents. This is yet another case of him trying to hide his actions. This is what a criminal does. I cannot find what the penalties are for violating the Act, but he should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Nixon was impeached and resigned. TFG is planning another run for pResident in 2024, and Republicans in this day and age are supporting him.

Fifty years later, the gap is wider, and I am not just referring to the presidential records.