Everyone wondered what the government had uncovered that would have justified the warrant to seize the ballots in Fulton County. Well, they released the affidavit the FBI submitted to the judge and it’s as outrageous as we might have imagined. Philip Bump reports:
By the bureau’s own admission, the recent FBI search of the Fulton County, Georgia, elections office did not center on uncovering evidence that the 2020 presidential election results there were tainted by fraud. The release of the affidavit submitted in support of the warrant makes that clear. The document argues that the potential illegality requiring federal intervention involved “many allegations of electoral impropriety relating to the voting process and ballot counting” in the county. It also claims that if failures on the part of election officials were “the result of intentional action,” a crime might have occurred.
The affidavit offers no evidence of intentionality, though. Instead, it centers primarily on rehashing existing, broadly debunked claims about purportedly dubious activity in the county at the time of the election. There is no evidence in the affidavit that the election was dishonest; there’s not even any evidence of significant, suspicious activity.So why does the affidavit exist? The direct answer to that question is offered by the affidavit itself.
“The FBI criminal investigation originated from a referral sent by Kurt Olsen, Presidentially appointed Director of Election Security and Integrity,” FBI Special Agent Hugh Raymond Evans writes.
Olsen is not an objective party here. At the time of the 2020 election, he worked for President Donald Trump’s campaign, leading efforts to overturn the results of a contest that Trump lost. He’s identified in the final report of the House select committee that probed Trump’s efforts as having “authored a memo urging Vice President [Mike] Pence to adjourn the joint session of Congress without counting electoral votes.” Trump tapped Olsen last year essentially to resume his work.
Of course it was at the hands of the coup plotters. How could it not be?
Bump points out that this about “proving” Donald Trump was right about everything but it’s also about rigging elections going forward. I’m very worried about this as I’m sure you are too. I know the blue states will hold the line. But states like Georgia, Arizona, Nevada, Ohio, North Carolina, which are at least partially run by Republicans, are going to be under tremendous pressure to go along.
There is a lot of talk about the nightmare scenario in which Mike Johnson refuses to give up control and won’t seat enough “contested” Democratic victors to give them the majority, but that isn’t the problem. Mike Johnson is not the speaker on January 3rd, when the new Congress convenes. The Congress is not a continuing body. Nothing happens until the new Congress elects a new speaker.
However, that doe not mean that there isn’t a potential problem. Ned Foley at electionlawblog explains here:
On January 3, 2027, the House will have to organize itself by first having the Members-elect vote in a new Speaker. If there is contestation over enough seats to determine which party has a majority of Members-elect for the purpose of holding the vote on who is the new Speaker, that contestation can stymie and delay the Speakership vote and prevent the organization of the House.It’s a situation very much to worry about, but not in the way Graham describes. It wouldn’t be the Republicans giving themselves the majority by seating two more Republican members instead of the two Democrats who were certified by the state to have won the election. It would be much messier and more complicated than that. (As a general rule, the Clerk of the House is supposed to identify as a Member-elect a candidate who presents a prima facie valid certificate of election from the state, history shows that it is not always that simple.)
They’re going to do something. We just have to hope that the Democrats are prepared for anything.