‘We Are Going To Fight Like Hell’
The Justice Department demanded in April that Fulton County hand over names and other personal information about the thousands of people who helped administer and run the election in the county in 2020. That fact became public this week, when the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections responded in a filing formally asking a federal judge to quash the grand jury subpoena.
The subpoena demands a sweeping tranche of records, including the names, addresses, emails and phone numbers of people who worked to administer the election in Fulton County or who served as volunteers. Fulton County’s response is righteously defiant, and officials have been vocal in pushing back on it, casting it as overreach that threatens elections far beyond Georgia.
“We are going to fight like hell to protect the citizens of Fulton County and our voters and guarantee people and assure people that every legal vote that’s cast will be counted,” Robb Pitts, the chairman of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, told TPM’s Khaya Himmelman in a phone interview today.
“This is a continuation of President Trump’s fixation on the 2020 election and the long term goal being, I think, to take over elections nationally, but beginning here in Fulton County, Georgia.”
The subpoena for the personal information of Fulton County 2020 election workers was approved by a grand jury in Georgia, but the action was initiated by U.S. attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina Dan Bishop, a longtime ally of President Trump whom ex-Attorney General Pam Bondi tasked with overseeing election-related investigations before she was fired earlier this year. According to the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections’ (shortened to FBRE in the filing) motion to quash the subpoena, the grand jury subpoena apparently directs the elections workers’ information be shared with Bishop, not the grand jury. You may recall, Bishop was, formerly, a member of Congress, and would not vote to certify President Biden’s election as president in 2020.
Per the filing:
Notably, the Subpoena does not require that the FBRE provide the records to the grand jury; instead, it directs that the records be routed out of this district to a U.S. Attorney appointed to “pursue election related probes across the country” on behalf of DOJ. So by its terms, the Subpoena does not suggest that the grand jury is conducting an investigation of its own (for which it intends to receive the records), but rather, that DOJ is simply conducting its own investigation. Notably, “[f]ederal prosecutors have no authority to issue grand jury subpoenas independent of the grand jury.” Yet here, there is no indication from the face of the Subpoena that the grand jury is even aware of this investigation, that the records will be returned to the grand jury, or that the grand jury would knowingly participate in a politicized abuse of its subpoena process given, among other things, that the statute of limitations has lapsed on any purported 2020 election “crime.”
The new request for election workers’ personal information is apparently linked to the FBI’s raid of Fulton County in January, when agents seized voting equipment, ballots and other documentation from the 2020 election there, according to the subpoena, issued in mid April.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was involved in the seizure of materials back in January and the whole episode — which was initiated by Trump ally and election conspiracy theorist Kurt Olsen, whom Trump has hired to investigate the 2020 election with the full resources of the White House — set off alarm bells among Democrats, election administrators and voting advocates across the country.
“… There are many reasons that this Court should quash the Subpoena,” the motion from Fulton County says. “Its purpose is to target, harass, and punish the President’s perceived political opponents; it is grossly overbroad and untethered to any reasonable need; it cannot yield any evidence that could result in a criminal prosecution (because, among other things, the statutes of limitations have expired for any purported 2020 election crimes); it burdens the First Amendment rights of election workers and will chill their participation in elections; and it unreasonably interferes with Georgia’s sovereign authority to administer elections. By any measure, the Subpoena is improper and must be quashed.”
TPM’s Khaya Himmelman contributed reporting.
Homan Vows to Flood NYC With ICE If Sanctuary Measures Are Passed
During a border security convention in Phoenix on Tuesday, Trump’s border czar Tom Homan vowed to “flood the zone” in cities including New York if local officials pass laws that limit their cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
“What’s going to happen to places like New York and these other people that pass this ridiculous legislation not to work with us? We’re going to flood the zone,” Homan said, according to footage of the event that was captured by Newsmax. “You’re going to see more ICE agents than you’ve ever seen before.”
Homan is seemingly referencing a Gov. Kathy Hochul-backed policy measure that the Democratic state legislature in New York is considering that would, essentially, limit collaboration between New York police departments and jails and federal immigration agents. It also would provide additional protections for undocumented immigrants and limit where deportation warrants can be executed. It would place a ban on face coverings for federal law enforcement, like ICE agents, in the state. Movement on the measures is expected to take place in coming days.
Homan’s remarks contradict the president’s. Trump previously, reportedly, told Hochul that he would not do another surge of federal immigration enforcement like we saw in Minnesota earlier this year, unless local officials wanted it.
“Local law enforcement is there for one purpose: That is to help protect our communities,” Hochul said in response to Homan’s remarks. “We also will continue working with ICE in cases of dangerous criminals, we always have, always will.”
“Donald Trump himself said he would not send a surge of ICE agents to the state of New York unless I ask. I’m not asking,” she continued.
In Other News …
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In Case You Missed It
Catch up on our live coverage of the fallout from the Callais decision here, from Khaya Himmelman and Kate Riga: States Scramble to Take Advantage of Supreme Court Ruling Crushing VRA
And more on that 5th Circuit decision last week, from Kate Riga: Four Years After Dobbs, Mifepristone Is Existentially Threatened — Again
The latest in Congress from Emine Yücel: Republicans Release Sweeping Legislation to Keep ICE Funded Through End of Trump’s Term
Morning Memo: Roberts Court Tosses GOP One More Midterm Gift
Yesterday’s Most Read Story
Bringing the Trump-Corrupted Presidency to Heel
What We Are Reading
Another House Republican is under the microscope for alleged sexual misconduct
F.D.A. Blocked Publication of Research Finding Covid and Shingles Vaccines Were Safe
If “they” flood New York with ICE, who is watching the borders of the U-S-A?
And Fallows.
I wrote on another thread for this report that it’s pretty bad when a corrupt lawyer knows his argument is so bad he has to re-do it to get past a judge.
Palantir.
Winning!
President Trump announced on Tuesday evening that the United States was pausing “for a short period of time” the mission he initiated on Monday to help guide ships through the Strait of Hormuz