What exactly Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was doing at the scene of the FBI’s raid on Fulton County’s election administration hub last week remains, for now, unclear. Congressional Democrats as well as Trump’s own Deputy Attorney General and close alley Todd Blanche have acknowledged the move was abnormal.
“I don’t know why the director was there,” Blanche said on CNN Sunday. “She is not part of the grand jury investigation, but she is for sure a key part of our efforts at election integrity and making sure we have free and fair elections. She’s an expert in that space and it’s a big part of what she and her team look at every day.”
But, according to new reporting from The New York Times Monday, it appears Gabbard was there at Trump’s request. Trump ordered Gabbard to go to Georgia for the search. She then, later, held a meeting with some of the FBI agents involved in the search as well as leaders in the FBI’s field office in Atlanta, the Times reported. During that meeting, Gabbard served as a conduit for President Trump to speak to the FBI members gathered.
The director of national intelligence reportedly used her cellphone to call Trump. Trump called back and reportedly spoke to the agents directly on speakerphone, asking questions about the search and thanking them for their work. Per the Times:
The supervisor of the squad, which investigates allegations of public corruption and civil rights violations and developed the evidence for the search, primarily fielded Mr. Trump’s queries, the people said. One U.S. official said the call was fairly short, perhaps just a minute long, and compared the conversation to a pep rally or a coach giving an encouraging halftime speech to his players. That person said the president gave no substantive direction to the investigators.
The raid — during which FBI agents had a warrant to seize all 2020 general election ballots in Fulton County, all the tabulator tapes from the voting machines used in the 2020 election, as well as all voter rolls from the 2020 election, among other things — came just days after President Trump dusted off his relentless falsehoods about the 2020 election being stolen from him. During a recent speech in Davos, Switzerland, Trump said that “people will soon be prosecuted for what they did,” referencing his various conspiracy theories about the results.
While Trump has already smashed all norms associated with the firewall that typically exists between the White House and the Justice Department, his reported direct communication with those investigating the 2020 election in Fulton County could raise future issues for any potential future prosecution, as the Times noted:
By speaking directly with the investigators, the president may have provided significant ammunition to any future defense should the investigation yield criminal charges.
His conversation with the agents would probably become part of an effort to have the case dismissed as a vindictive prosecution. Alternatively, if such a case went to trial, defense lawyers would presumably try to elicit testimony from the F.B.I. agents who spoke to the president in the early stages of the investigation, or possibly from Mr. Trump himself.
— Nicole LaFond
Ed Martin Out
After failing to secure the votes for to be confirmed as U.S. Attorney in Washington, DC, Ed Martin has been working in various Trumpian retribution-tinted roles at the DOJ, both as the head of the supposed Working Weaponization Group and as a pardon attorney.
CNN reports today that Martin is on his way out and is expected to leave the DOJ in coming weeks, in part due to actions taken by Deputy AG Blanche. Per CNN:
Sources familiar with the situation say that once Martin was installed in his office inside Justice Department headquarters in Washington, Blanche – one of Trump’s former personal lawyers – made moves to significantly limit Martin’s ability to wield power.
Even though he was tapped to the lead the Department’s Weaponization Working Group, a source tells CNN Martin was “layered” by the deputy attorney general and was not really in charge of that effort.
It’s possible that Martin’s role in the Trump administration is just getting another switch up. CNN notes that Martin “spent most of last week at the White House.”
— Nicole LaFond
Judge Knocks Down Trump’s Attempts to Add Proof of Citizenship Requirements to Voting
A federal judge ruled over the weekend to reject a few provisions of President Trump’s executive order purporting to impose new requirements on voting.
They included a mandate for agency heads to assess the citizenship status of “enrollees of public assistance programs” before giving them a federal form with which to vote, and for a proof-of-citizenship requirement to be added to a form for military and overseas voters.
“Put simply, our Constitution does not allow the President to impose unilateral changes to federal election procedures,” wrote Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly.
— Kate Riga
In Case You Missed It
Josh Marshall: The Fight Is Upon Us: What The Right to Vote Looks Like on Trump’s Terrain of Violence
Turmoil at FEMA Adds to the Revolt Against Kristi Noem
Morning Memo: Everything Effed Up About the Don Lemon Case
Catch up on our live coverage of the partial government shutdown here: House Dems Still Opposed to Helping Fund DHS
Yesterday’s Most Read Story
Triumph Of The Bill: Amazon’s $75 Million ‘Melania’ Movie Is A Corrupt, Fascistic Cinema Fest
Corrupt to the essence of his very being.
So Martin spent the last week at the WH winning about how ‘they won’t let me do anything’ and now he is leaving the DoJ. Good riddance.
OT - Musk’s xAI must be running in the red and needs to be rescued.
From AP:
Dr. Cadet Toad-glans mit der Bone Spurs von Queens always "supporting our troops,"™ you know.
The telecom between the First Felon and the agents stealing the election files might be serious evidence against the administration, but I fully expect no lawsuit on this theft with a warrant will take place before 2030.
If at all.