US Elections

The 28 January raid of the Fulton county election office also came after a referral from a White House lawyerThe FBI’s rationale behind raiding the Fulton county election office in Georgia last month was based on debunked claims from election deniers and came after a referral from a White House lawyer who tried to overturn the 2020 election, a search warrant affidavit unsealed on Tuesday reveals.The warrant offers the first insight for the basis for the FBI’s 28 January raid on the Fulton county election office. FBI officials seized nearly 700 boxes of election materials in the raid. Continue reading...

Shifting explanations of Gabbard’s presence at election center intensifies scrutiny of role she played in operationDonald Trump on Thursday offered a new and shifting account of why Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, was present last week at an FBI raid of an election center in Georgia, saying she went at the urging of the attorney general Pam Bondi.“She took a lot of heat two days ago because she went in at Pam’s insistence,” the US president said at the National Prayer Breakfast, a high-profile event of political and religious leaders. “She went in and she looked at votes that wanted to be checked out from Georgia.” Continue reading...

Robb Pitts said call came days before federal agents seized 2020 election documents in GeorgiaThe Fulton county commission chair, Robb Pitts, said at a press conference this morning that he received a phone call last Monday – two days before the FBI served a criminal warrant to seize 2020 election documents – to warn that he, Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, former Raffensperger deputy Gabriel Sterling and others in the state were at risk of imminent arrest by federal agents.“That did not happen on Monday,” Pitts said. “It didn’t happen on Tuesday, but lo and behold on Wednesday, the FBI shows up.” Continue reading...

Exclusive: Trump endorsed national intelligence director’s sweeping review by sending her on Georgia raid last weekTulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, is running her own review into the 2020 election with Donald Trump’s approval, working separately from a justice department investigation even as she joined an FBI raid of an election center in Georgia last week.Her presence at the raid drew criticism from Democrats and former intelligence officials, who questioned why the country’s top intelligence officer with no domestic law enforcement powers would appear at the scene of an FBI raid. Continue reading...

Commissioner to file motion requesting return of property unlawfully taken during raid related to 2020 electionFulton county leaders said they would fire back in court on Monday, intent on limiting the scope of a federal warrant that led the FBI to seize 2020 elections documents last week.County attorneys intend to file a motion in federal court asking for an order mandating the return of property that was unlawfully seized or retained, said the Fulton county commissioner Marvin Arrington Jr. Continue reading...

The administration’s efforts show the lengths to which Trump is willing to go to lay the groundwork for 2026While the nation’s attention was focused on the ICE invasion of Minneapolis, another part of Trump’s authoritarian state apparatus was in action more than a thousand miles away. On Wednesday 28 January, the FBI carried out a stunning raid at the central election facility in Fulton county, Georgia.Its purpose: to seize ballots cast in the 2020 election. Such an action is unprecedented.Austin Sarat, William Nelson Cromwell professor of jurisprudence and political science at Amherst College, is the author or editor of more than 100 books, including Gruesome Spectacles: Botched Executions and America’s Death Penalty Continue reading...

Raid on Fulton county election office is part of the Trump administration’s wider US push to fuel false claims of fraudThe FBI raid on the Fulton county election office Wednesday was an aggressive new front in Donald Trump’s effort to use his 2020 election loss to continue to sow doubt about American elections ahead of the 2026 midterms.As Trump sought to overturn the 2020 election, false claims of malfeasance during ballot-counting in Atlanta became a key part of the big lie about a stolen election. Misleading surveillance video showing ballots being retrieved from suitcases became the basis for a myth that fraudulent ballots were included in the tally. Rudy Giuliani, the president’s lawyer and a close ally at the time, was ordered to pay $148.1m to the election workers as part of a libel suit for spreading lies about them. He later settled. Continue reading...

Lawmakers question national intelligence head’s fitness for office after overt, unexplained appearanceDemocratic lawmakers are raising questions about why Tulsi Gabbard, the president’s director of national intelligence, was “lurking” in Fulton county on Wednesday while FBI agents carted off boxes of 2020 election documents.Gabbard visited an elections hub in Fulton county, home to Atlanta, on Wednesday as the FBI executed a search warrant for records related to the 2020 election. The warrant sought all ballots from the 2020 election in the county, tabulator tapes, ballot images and voter rolls, according to a warrant obtained by the Guardian. Continue reading...

County spokesperson says warrant seeks number of 2020 election records while FBI declines to give further detailsThe FBI executed a search warrant at the election office in Fulton county, Georgia, on Wednesday for records related to the 2020 election, according to a spokesperson for the county and the FBI.The warrant sought all ballots from the 2020 election in Fulton county, tabulator tapes, ballot images and voter rolls, according to a warrant obtained by the Guardian. Continue reading...

Ex-special counsel testifies to Republican-led House panel that he followed law in holding president to accountUS politics live – latest updatesJack Smith, the former special counsel, has defended his decision to seek criminal charges against Donald Trump for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election in his first and perhaps only public appearance to discuss the cases after they were dropped last year.“No one should be above the law in this country, and the law required that he be held to account,” Smith said in his opening remarks before the House judiciary committee. “So that is what I did.” Continue reading...

President says he ‘should have’ used national guard to seize machines in support of false claim that election was riggedDonald Trump has said he regrets not getting the US national guard to seize voting machines after his 2020 election defeat ended his first presidency, as he continues to falsely claim that he won the race. But he has also questioned whether national guard troops would be “sophisticated enough” to pull something like that off.Trump made those remarks in an interview with the New York Times published on Sunday. The outlet had questioned him about a plan reportedly floated in late 2020, after he lost that year’s presidential election to Joe Biden, to seize voting machines in several key swing states in an effort to search for evidence of fraud. Continue reading...

Democrats hold hearing to examine impact of January 6, while protesters commemorate attack on Capitol groundsCongressional Republicans were largely silent on the fifth anniversary of the January 6 insurrection on Tuesday, even as Democrats sought to use the occasion to condemn Donald Trump and a small group of protesters convened on the grounds of the US Capitol in solidarity with those who carried out the attack.Democrats, who are in the minority in Congress after fruitlessly hoping that the well-documented violence would cause voters to reject Trump for good, seized on the anniversary to decry the president as a threat to democracy, and accuse Republicans of acting as his accomplices. Continue reading...

Fulton county DA hits back at Republican opponents who investigated her over relationship with special prosecutorThe Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, testified on Wednesday at a combative Georgia state senate committee about her prosecution of Donald Trump for election interference.The state senate created the special committee in early 2024 to investigate Willis after the revelation that she had a romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, special prosecutor in the Trump case, which ultimately derailed the prosecution of the now-re-elected president. Continue reading...

In key hearing in defamation case, Fox counters that network simply covered allegations by Trump associatesRupert and Lachlan Murdoch authorized a plan for Fox News to embrace Donald Trump’s false claims of election fraud in 2020 in an attempt to win back viewers angry with the network, a lawyer for the voting technology company Smartmatic argued on Tuesday.“The conservative viewers, their bread and butter, abandoned them,” J Erik Connolly told the New York state supreme court judge David B Cohen. “So what do they do? They return back to what they know best: they return back to disinformation, pro-Trump propaganda and xenophobia. The election story and the election fraud claims was the perfect vehicle for them to get back on to their core messaging.” Continue reading...

Those who tried to overturn the 2020 election now occupy key federal roles, shaping rules and sowing doubt for 2026The people who tried to overturn the 2020 election have more power than ever – and they plan to use it.Bolstered by the president, they have prominent roles in key parts of the federal government. Harmeet Dhillon, a lawyer who helped advance Donald Trump’s claims of a stolen election in 2020, now leads the civil rights division of the justice department. An election denier, Heather Honey, now serves as the deputy assistant secretary for election integrity in the Department of Homeland Security. Kurt Olsen, an attorney involved in the “stop the steal” movement, is now a special government employee investigating the 2020 election. Continue reading...

State prosecutor dismisses charges against US president and others in election interference caseThe case against Donald Trump and his co-defendants in Georgia ended on Wednesday with a filing for dismissal by the state prosecutor who took over after the removal of Fani Willis, the Fulton county district attorney.Pete Skandalakis, the prosecutor and the executive director of the prosecuting attorneys’ council of Georgia, confirmed to the Guardian that “it’s over”after superior court judge Scott McAfee issued a one-page order on Wednesday dismissing the 2020 racketeering case. Skandalakis said he would be making no further comments about the matter. Continue reading...

Even before the 2020 election, tensions were high between Fox News executives and Trump, new documents showWhat happened at Fox News after the 2020 election? Documents reveal new detailsNew revelations about the tense relationship between Fox News and Donald Trump in the fall of 2020 have emerged in a trove of thousands of court documents released on Sunday as part of a massive defamation lawsuit filed against the network by voting technology company Smartmatic.One exchange showed that Lachlan Murdoch, the chief executive of Fox News parent company Fox Corp, told star anchor Sean Hannity in a 1 October 2020 text chain that Trump could not appear on Fox again if he attacked the network. Continue reading...

President’s comment implies hostility to Venezuela may be based on unfounded election-rigging conspiracy theoryDonald Trump on Sunday appeared to endorse the discredited conspiracy theory that Venezuela’s leadership controls electronic voting software worldwide and caused his 2020 election defeat to Joe Biden.White House officials have previously said that Trump’s increasingly bellicose policy toward Venezuela is driven by concerns about migration and the drug trade. But the president’s new comment, made on Truth Social, hints that his hostility to Venezuela may also be based on an outlandish, implausible theory ruled to be false by a judge in 2023. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Discredited election-rigging conspiracy theory could strengthen Trump’s military action against MaduroFederal investigators have been interviewing multiple people who are pushing unfounded claims that Venezuela helped steal the 2020 election from Donald Trump, the Guardian has learned.Two promoters of the conspiracy theory have repeatedly briefed the US attorney for the district of Puerto Rico, W Stephen Muldrow, and have shared witnesses and documents with officials, according to four sources. Muldrow declined to comment. Continue reading...

Pete Skandalakis appointed himself to take over 2020 election interference case from district attorney Fani WillisThe only remaining criminal case against Donald Trump has been revived after the head of Georgia’s prosecutor’s council appointed himself to replace Fani Willis, the Fulton county district attorney, who was removed from the election interference case in September.Pete Skandalakis, a Republican and the executive director of the prosecuting attorneys’ council of Georgia, the state body that provides legal training and is often charged to mitigate prosecutorial conflicts, wrote in a statement on Friday that he would be taking over from Willis. Continue reading...