Lake campaign claimed a "white powder" was found in a letter; but reality finds nada

Last weekend (before the election), the Lake campaign claimed that a letter delivered to it contained a "suspicious" susbstance.

This weekend (after the election), the police are saying that nothing was found.

From AP via Yahoo! -

Police: No powder found in envelopes in candidate's office

An envelope that had been reported by the campaign of the Republican candidate for Arizona governor as containing a white powder was thrown away before it could be analyzed, and no powder was found in two other letters the campaign turned over to authorities, officials said.

An analysis by the state public health lab of the two subsequent letters sent to Kari Lake's campaign office showed “there was no powder present and no harmful substance in either of the envelopes, but the two letters contained additional derogatory and vulgar statements," Phoenix Police spokesperson Donna Rossi said in an overnight statement.

Lake's campaign security chief Scott Masino said in a statement provided Saturday that the first envelope containing a “white powdery substance along with a hateful letter” was tossed into the trash by a campaign volunteer who did not report it to security until the bin had been emptied.

[snip]

Initial reports about the discovery of suspicious mail by the Lake campaign last weekend mentioned only the first envelope, and nothing was said at the time about it being tossed into the trash and carted away before it could be studied.

As someone who has served as both a juror and a campaign volunteer, I feel qualified to make some observations here -

When the (alleged) victim of an (alleged) crime change their story to reflect known facts creates instant reasonable doubt.

When are campaign volunteers allowed to do *anything* other than fetch coffee?