Trump's Plan to Interfere with Elections, Continued

Yesterday I wrote about cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump's clear intentions to interfere in November's midterm elections. As I wrote in that post, Trump and his inner circle simply cannot allow the Democrats to take over either the House of Representatives or the Senate, let alone both. Last November, Democrats won just about everything that was possible to win, including all 13 statewide elections. Indeed, in 2025, Democrats flipped 21 percent of Republican-held legislative seats that were on the ballot. Republicans did not flip a single Democratic seat. That winning streak continued this past Saturday when Democrat Taylor Rehmet won a special election for the Texas state Senate by more than 14 percentage points. In 2024, Trump won that district by 17 points. You don't have to be Steve Kornacki to know what these numbers are suggesting about November's likely election outcome. In a sign of Trump's desperation, the FBI searched the Fulton County, Georgia election offices last week. There were a number of unusual aspects to this search which are quite ominous, including the involvement of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and a direct phone conversation between Trump and the FBI agents conducting the search.

By way of background, Trump lost Georgia in 2020 but refused to accept his defeat. He alleged various types of cheating that he believed resulted in the election being stolen from him. Trump was particularly focused on Fulton County, saying "Fulton County is totally corrupt" and claiming that election officials had shredded ballots that were uncounted Trump votes. In January 2021, Trump got on the phone with Georgia's Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. During the hourlong call, Trump said "So, look. All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state."

The vote in Georgia would be subject to recounts, audits, and multiple court cases, and no significant wrongdoing was ever discovered. Rudy Giuliani lost a defamation suit brought against him by two Fulton County election workers that Giuliani falsely accused of election fraud. Trump would later be criminally indicted for election interference in the state. But none of this was enough to convince Trump that he had lost the election.

A recent article by Lawfare traced actions that have been taken on behalf of Trump in recent years to continue investigations into Fulton County. According to the article, which is bylined by six of Lawfare's contributors, a key point occurred in 2024 when Trump supporters succeeded in establishing a majority on the 5-person Georgia State Election Board. The newly formulated board reopened an investigation into the 2020 election in Fulton County and subpoenaed "troves of documents" including "all used and void ballots, stubs of all ballots, signature envelopes, and corresponding envelope digital files." The Board also requested U.S. Department of Justice assistance. Fulton County responded by saying that the documents being requested were "under seal and may not be produced absent a Court Order." This led the DOJ to file a civil suit against the county. According to a Republican member of the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections, the failure of the county to produce the requested records is what led to the FBI search.

This, however, does not explain the FBI search. As the Lawfare article notes, "Nothing in the public record remotely suggests that a crime was committed in the tallying of Georgia’s vote". While the government has filed a civil lawsuit against the county, this search is part of a criminal process.

Moreover, Gabbard was photographed accompanying federal agents during the search and, according to the New York Times, later arranged a phone call with Trump during which he spoke directly with the FBI agents. To say that both of these things were highly unusual does not even begin to scratch the surface. Gabbard's job is to provide intelligence to the President, not to conduct domestic criminal investigations. As Lawfare puts it, "Quite simply, the DNI is not a law enforcement officer and has no conceivable reason to be present." The Trump administration has failed to provide an adequate explanation for her involvement. As for Trump's conversation with the agents, his involvement taints the investigation and will likely be used as a defense if the investigation results in criminal charges. It is also indicative of the political pressure being applied to those involved in the investigation.

As Lawfare explains, the search warrant used to authorize the search suggests that the Trump administration was able to convince a magistrate judge of probable cause "that there had been some failure to retain records for the requisite period of time, and that there had been either threats, coercion, or fraud in vote processes or tabulation." These, of course, are charges that Trump has routinely alleged but for which he has never provided evidence. Apparently, he hopes that this search will uncover such evidence.

As I wrote yesterday, it is very hard to discern Trump's motives. Around the time of the search, Trump posted the tweet that I described yesterday that alleged a wide conspiracy involving Barack Obama, the CIA, FBI, Italian officials, and military satellites. Is there a link between Trump's post and the Fulton County search? Who knows? The presence of Gabbard could suggest an international angle. As Lawfare notes, Gabbard has also promoted another conspiracy theory in which former Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez rigged Dominion Voting Systems machines against Trump. Famously, Fox News was forced to pay Dominion $787.5 million due to having broadcast such allegations. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Trump interrupted his threats to seize Greenland to say, "It was a rigged election. Everybody now knows that. People will soon be prosecuted for what they did." On the one hand, this suggests that Trump really believes the investigation will yield results, possibly proving one of his conspiracy theories. On the other hand, the record of attempts to prosecute James Comey and Leticia James shows that this administration will do Trump's bidding to prosecute his enemies even when no evidence exists to justify such prosecutions. Therefore, people being prosecuted doesn't mean that there is actual evidence of wrongdoing.

Another possibility is one outlined in a recent Atlanta Journal-Constitution article. As noted above, the Georgia State Election Board now has a pro-Trump majority. In 2021, Georgia's General Assembly passed a law giving the Board the power to replace any "underperforming" county election board, including Fulton County's, with an interim leader chosen by the Board. However, such a change is only allowed after an audit or investigation. Trump could be hoping that the FBI search will provide a pretext for the state election board to intervene and appoint new county board members. Such members would presumably be pro-Trump. This would give Trump immense influence over future elections in Fulton County.

Not only is Trump motivated by his past anger about what he claims to have been a stolen election that he blames on Fulton County, but Georgia will have one of the most competitive U.S. Senate races this year, the election for the seat currently held by Democrat Jon Ossoff. If Republicans hope to retain control of the Senate, defeating Ossoff would be an important step. As I frequently write, Trump's brain is mush. He may well be chasing conspiracy theories. But those behind Trump, such as Deputy Chief of Staff and world-class hater Stephen Miller, are smart enough to know the value of Ossoff's seat. They could easily be encouraging Trump with tales of satellites and Hugo Chávez's ghost, while pursuing their own ends aimed at keeping the Senate in Republican hands.

Moreover, if any irregularities in Fulton County's voting are found, or simply manufactured — which you can't put beyond this crew of grifters — they could be used to justify federal interventions in other states. Remember that Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz offering to withdraw federal immigration agents if he turned over Minnesota’s voting data. Minnesota will have an election for an open Senate seat this November thanks to the retirement of Democrat Tina Smith. Are you seeing a pattern?

It is not clear to me that many Democrats understand the real danger that our elections face this November. One who does is Senator Chris Van Hollen, who yesterday released a video that basically makes almost every point that I have made in this post. Throughout Trump's second term, Van Hollen has seemed to be way ahead of his colleagues in recognizing the dangers facing the nation and in being willing to confront Trump when necessary. Sadly, Van Hollen is normally brushed off by Democratic leaders. As for the media, mainstream outlets have been willing to report on independent events, such as the FBI raid on Fulton County, but few corporate media outlets have focused on the big picture and attempted to connect the dots. As a result, one of the most important issues for the future of our political system is mostly flying under the radar.