Judge allows for visibility into how Fulton County ballots were taken

Added: 2026-05-11

[00:00:00]This is Democracy Watch. Mark, we have a pretty explosive update here because we all watched as Tulsi Gabbard led this effort to grab a bunch of ballots from Fulton County in 2020. And the question that everybody was asking was what what justification did a judge get to actually allow this whole process to move forward, this crazy process? We now have an update on that exact question.

[00:00:26]Can you explain what that is? Yeah, a journalist actually filed a motion to unseal the names of the witnesses. Now, that may seem like a small thing, but it is actually quite uh unusual and it's more even more unusual that it's granted and this judge granted it with everyone with respect except for one witness. So, we're going to learn a lot about who are the people who said what that led to this whole thing because it's a real, you know, it's a real head scratcher.

[00:00:53]You've got you've got an election that takes place in 2020. you've got um you know a seizure that a search and seizure that takes place in 2026. We've all seen the affidavit right that's been released and that we thought that maybe would tell us the story but the it's kind of a threadbear affidavit uh that really didn't tell us like I don't know how the magistrate found probable cause based on that. So the next thing and like I said kudos to the the reporter who who pursued this is well maybe if we know who the people are like who are the witnesses who like who who said what to who maybe we'll learn something about what this is and the fact that the department of justice fought this >> it tells you something about who those people probably are. I suspect that this is not going to be uh let's put it this way they're not going to be career civil servants.

[00:01:42]>> Yeah. if if we find out that these people are like stop the steel, you know, Republican operatives, how does that change things? And also, I mean, I I guess the the the million-dollar question here is how would a judge kind of fall for it and see what's happening across the country, see that, you know, this is a question that's been litigated over and over and over. In Arizona, we had the cyber ninjas. You know, we've heard Donald Trump like issue this idea that there was fraud in the election, but there were 65 court cases and he lost 64 of them except for a ballot cure deadline in Pennsylvania shortening from 9 to 6 days. But like even the judges have to know that this is just a farce being put forward by Trump. And so, how did they get away with this? Yeah. And Brian, this has been the big question since the day of the search. Like, we thought the affidavit would tell us the answers to that. But, you know, in addition to everything you just said, there is a statute of limitations, right? And like we are in 2026, there's a 5-year statute of limitations for whatever crimes they are potentially looking at and the election was in 2020, right? So, how was it that this was all done is still not really an answered question. But what we are now going to learn more of is who were the people like you know maybe it was that the people who were bringing these allegations were of such extraordinary public prominence and high character that that's what tipped the scale. I sort of suspect not because if that's who they were >> I was going to say like cut to like Mike Lindell is that like who is going to be of big enough stature. EOJ would have put that out, right? If they had an insider, a nonpartisan person, a Democrat, right? They would have released that. The fact that they fought tooth and nail not to release who these people are tells you probably that they're going to be people who we expect they are. But I think there is at some point going to have to be that question answered, which is how did a federal magistrate judge, looking at the affidavit that we've seen. And assuming they that the witnesses were of the nature we suspect, how the hell did this happen?

[00:03:50]>> If a federal magistrate judge allowed this to happen beyond the statute of limitations, is there a world where judicial misconduct took place and there could be um, you know, some consequence for that?

[00:04:02]>> Potentially, although I think unlikely.

[00:04:04]I mean the the usual remedy in a situation like this where you have a search and seizure that the affidavit or the probable cause was not there in the affidavit. The usual remedy is suppression of the evidence, right? Like it doesn't come in at trial, right? The problem here is of course nobody's getting indicted for this, right? There will never be a suppression hearing because like this is all a bunch of right? This is all politics.

[00:04:30]This is all a dry run for 2026. It's all about sour grapes in 2020. So like usually the place that this gets kind of like litigated out is someone gets indicted and then they move to suppress the evidence saying there was never a probable cause. But you know we know what the Department of Justice is up to here. They're not really trying to bring a criminal case because there's not one to bring. They're just abusing the grand jury process. They're abusing the search and seizure process for political gain.

[00:04:59]And you know that's what we saw some litigation by Fulton County about and you know and to try to get their ballots back. But you know I don't think in the end there's going to be a lot of justice here.

[00:05:09]>> Now on that issue of vote suppression.

[00:05:11]First of all I have to note that there is no bigger champion in the independent media space for pointing out the fact that Donald Trump is engaged in these voter suppressive or efforts or efforts to interfere in the upcoming elections than you and your team. So, I just want to make a note for anybody who's watching, if you want to support that work, if you want to get Mark's voice into the ecosystem even more, a small step that everybody can and should take right now is to subscribe to Democracy Docket. That's the news outlet Mark founded to focus on everything voting and elections. So, I'm going to put that link right here on the screen and also in the post description of this video.

[00:05:43]Click on those links, put it to the side for right now, and make sure to sign up right after this video is done so that you can make sure to again elevate Mark's voice in this ecosystem as much as possible. Mark, to that end, you know, there are going to be folks who are watching this and say like, "So what? Donald Trump grabbed a bunch of ballots in 2020. That election is long gone. What damage could he really do by grabbing six-year-old ballots?" And so what would be your response to that?

[00:06:08]>> Yeah. So look, I think there are two reasons why this is taking place. One is to vindicate the big lie, to try to perpetuate the big lie. And that is dangerous. It is not an answer to say that was six years ago because it is still front and center in Donald Trump's mind. It remains the unifying theory and thesis and glue that is holding together this this MAGA coalition that is fracturing on a whole lot of other issues. The one thing that is holding them together is this 2020 lie that Donald Trump continues to perpetuate. So that's one reason. But the second Brian, as you and I have talked about, >> there is also an element of like learning and dry run for 2026. Like they want to keep these ballots. They want to be able to to engage in this kind of activity. They want to keep secret the witnesses because they want to be able to do this in 2026 if Donald Trump feels like he needs to. And Brian, look at the polls. Like, you know, what has happened in the last three months? Uh, other than Donald Trump's gotten more unpopular, uh, he started a war that is unbelievably unpopular. Prices have gone up, not down, right? I mean like his candid his campaigns, you know, the the Republican party is in a shambles.

[00:07:20]>> Yeah.

[00:07:20]>> I mean, he's only going to be more desperate, >> right, >> in 2026 as we are going along. And so, you know, if you think he did a ballot seizure and was one and done, then you haven't been listening to him because he actually said he wished he had seized the ballots in 2020. He told that to the New York Times in January. I'm sure as we sit here now in May, you know, he he he's wishing he wants that capability in 2026 as well. And >> and frankly, two things on that. He is looking to seize the ballots elsewhere.

[00:07:49]We had Chad Bianca, who's a gubernatorial candidate in in my state of P of California who sees 650,000 ballots from Riverside County. So, this is, you know, Donald Trump kind of issuing his clarion call and other Republicans heeding that call. But putting that aside, this isn't the only part of election infrastructure that Trump is attacking. Also in Fulton County, there was an effort by the Trump administration uh to get the names of anybody who was involved in the whole election pro uh process. Can you explain a little bit of that whole scandal that's just been revealed?

[00:08:22]>> Yeah, this is a major scandal uh that's brewing uh that could have uh devastating consequences nationwide. Uh Donald Trump's Department of Justice wants the names of all 2,000 2,000 people who worked any aspect of the election. Okay? Any aspect. Like it doesn't matter whether you were checking in people at a poll in Fulton County or you were, you know, the director of elections in Fulton County or, you know, maybe even the people who were cleaning up the offices in Fulton County. Like if you were any place near this, he wants your name. Now, the reason why this has dev could have devastating consequences nationwide is that number one, we have already seen what Donald Trump does when he gets those names. People get doxed, people get intimidated, he posts about them in the middle of the night, they get lied about, they get threats, and he is setting up a permission structure for that to happen. and a threat to people working all around the country, whether they're in Fulton County or in Los Angeles County, whether they are in New Mexico or in New England, like he is setting up a situation that no one who works an election that he may lose is safe from his potential uh retribution and and all of all that comes with that.

[00:09:33]And then the second thing thing is Brian, you know, I think that he wants to know who all these people are because he's also trying to figure out how well they have infiltrated these offices moving forward, right? You got a baseline of a fairly administered election in 2020. He's trying to compromise that by having people like the Tina Peters of the world, not literally Tina Peters, she's currently in prison in in Colorado, but people like that. And this is a way for him to compare, okay, how many of those people still left? How many of those people are gone? How many have we replaced? Hey Todd Blanch, I need the DOJ to take action to kick more of these 2,000 people out.

[00:10:09]>> Yeah. It's also worth noting that, okay, if Donald Trump has a list of all 2,000 people who work the election in Fulton County, that might not be a big problem if he didn't also seek the voter roles that would give the federal government a bunch of information on exactly who those 2,000 people are. So, the fact that he's doing both of those things in conjunction, trying to get the voter roles from every single jurisdiction and trying to get the information on who is working these elections, he can put two and two together. He'll be able to see if they're registered Democrats or registered Republicans and then figure out who he wants to purge, who he wants to attack, who he wants to dox, but he's doing all of these things in conjunction. And by the way, I should note for folks who are watching right now that Mark has lawsuits in roughly 30 states across the country blocking the federal government from gaining access to these voter roles. So the only thing stopping uh Donald Trump from being able to see your social security number, your voter affiliation, what have you, is the fact that he has these lawsuits that are right now um basically the only thing blocking Trump from getting all that information. But I mean, you know, it's not it shouldn't be lost on any of us that having all of this information in conjunction is certainly going to be helpful if he's if he's looking to prevent certain people from working our elections.

[00:11:23]>> No, that's exactly right. And you know, these lawsuits to prevent access to these voter roles are critically important for for a number of reasons, and you you you've mentioned some of them. But I also think that we need to recognize that the Department of Justice is doing this but has actually gotten worse. You know, I think that one of the the under reportported stories right now is that when we talk about the Department of Justice, we used to be talking about Pam Bondi who was not particularly effective, you know, lied a lot, was a sickant, but like >> had her moments in which she seemed to displease uh the president, hence the dear Pam. uh social media the post.

[00:12:03]Yeah.

[00:12:03]>> Todd Blanch has come out of the box and been like, "No, no, no. I will do whatever Donald Trump wants." Like, he's actually not saying that he will do anything other than salute Donald Trump.

[00:12:15]And if Donald Trump wants to go over his political enemies, Todd Blanch will do it. And he's, you know, I hate to say it, he's a lot more competent than Pam Bond. You know, he's a former federal prosecutor. He knows where how to pull the strings within the Department of Justice in a much more fundamentally capable way than Pam Bondi was. And he's willing to do anything that Donald Trump tells him to do. Anything. And so it's actually a lot more dangerous than it was, you know, just 3 months ago.

[00:12:42]>> Yeah. All of which again underscores the need to have fighters in this space who are capable of and willing to litigate this stuff. Uh, and there is no bigger and better fighter than you in this space, especially when it comes to voting rights, elections, what have you.

[00:12:55]So again, for those who are watching right now, to support Mark's work and to elevate his voice in this ecosystem, please subscribe to Democracy Docket.

[00:13:02]I'm going to put that link right here on the screen and also in the post description of this video. I'm Brian Teller Cohen.

[00:13:07]>> I'm Mark Elias.

[00:13:08]>> This is Democracy Watch.