OMG: Trump pulls DANGEROUS stunt in Georgia

You're watching the Legal Breakdown. Glenn, it looks like the Trump. administration has gone scorched earth. against poll workers and election. officials in the state of Georgia, which. so often is ground zero for this kind of. stuff. Can you explain what just. happened in Fulton County? Yeah, Brian, it looks like the Trump. administration is tripling down on. election denialism and they're trying to. use a federal grand jury and by. extension the federal judiciary to back. them up on this obviously bogus attempt.

to get personal information from Fulton. County election workers, employees from. Fulton County volunteer poll workers. who, according to the reporting, number. potentially in the thousands. And Brian, this comes this subpoena comes at a time. when early voting is already open in. Georgia and in other states. So, here is. how we just learned about this. Fulton.

County filed what's called a motion to. quash and it is public. Grand jury. subpoenas are not public, so we knew. nothing about this until Fulton County. election authorities just filed this. motion to quash. That's a fancy word for. trying to convince a judge that the. subpoena that Trump's DOJ issued for all. of this information is flat out. unlawful. There is no legal basis for. it. So, Brian, here's the backstory. Some months ago somehow the DOJ.

convinced a magistrate judge, a. low-level federal judge in Georgia. to allow them to seize all of the Fulton. County ballots and it looks like, you. know, when we learned more about what. was behind the the affidavit seeking a. search warrant, seeking permission from. a judge to seize all these Fulton County. voting ballots from 2020, it looks like. it was based on, you know, what we all. know are debunked.

election interference claims. So, it. looks like that federal magistrate sort. of had some egg on his face, at least. based on the reporting, but here we go. again because now the Trump. administration officials apparently. issued a grand jury subpoena. And let me. just tell our viewers exactly what they. are seeking to force the Fulton County. election officials to turn over to. Trump's Department of Justice. The. names, positions, email addresses,

personal telephone numbers for 10. categories of Fulton County election. workers. And this comes at a time, according to the reporting, when. election workers fear for their personal. safety and this subpoena would also. apply to volunteers, temporary poll. workers and even bus drivers who. operated a mobile voting location. According to the motion to quash, the.

motion to throw out this subpoena that. was just filed by Fulton County election. officials, and now we're going to see. probably some robust litigation where. DOJ will try to persuade the judge, "No, no, no. This is all on the up and up. We're actually investigating election. interference in the 2020 election." Put. a pin in that date, 2020, that year. We'll come back to it in a few minutes. But and then the Fulton County election. officials will argue, "No, there is. absolutely no lawful basis for the grand.

jury to claim it is investigating. criminal activity um based on the the. the election that occurred in 2020.". Here's the reason I said put a pin in. that. In this motion that was filed by. the Fulton County election officials, they also said, "Oh, by the way, they. can't be investigating crimes that. allegedly took place, although they. didn't, allegedly took place back in. 2020 because the statute of limitations.

has run." So, you know, there are like. two or three layers of why a judge. should quash, should throw out this. grand jury subpoena that was issued by. Donald Trump's dirty DOJ leadership. Glenn, it's so obvious here what what. the Trump administration is trying to do. by vilifying and targeting anybody who's. involved in making sure that our. elections run in a free and fair manner. Um what do you think the the the hope is. for the Trump administration in.

targeting these people, in um beginning. with Fulton County in hopes that they. can export this strategy across the. country? Brian, before I turn to what I believe. is going on here, let me quote Rob. Pitts. He is the chairman of the Fulton. County Election Commission and here is. what he said about this subpoena. He. said, "This is obviously designed to. harass. It's designed to intimidate and. chill participation not only by voters,

but by election workers and volunteer. poll workers." And he said flat out, "This is another example of Donald Trump. misusing the the powers of the. Department of Justice to go after his. perceived enemies, you know, to go after. old grievances and allegations that have. long since been debunked. I mean, our. viewers will undoubtedly remember that, you know,

lawyers launched something like between. 60 and 65 legal challenges, court. challenges of the results of the 2020. election and they were all shot down by. federal judges coast to coast. Not to. mention Donald Trump's own executive. branch officials said there was no fraud. undermining the results of the 2020. election. So, Brian, I I believe that what's really going on. here is an effort to keep people from. going to the polls, right? Just instill.

as much fear and intimidation regarding. the uncertainty of what the feds might. do if I vote or if I volunteer to work. the polls or if I am a Fulton County. election worker proper, an employee of. Fulton County. This is intimidation. This is harassment and this is an effort. to suppress and undermine the right to. vote in Georgia. Okay, so I want to talk. about the remedy, the pushback here, but. before I do, just a quick note for. anybody who's watching. If you.

appreciate our coverage of legal news, I'm going to ask that you subscribe to. both of our channels. It's completely. free to subscribe, but a great way to. support our work and independent media. So, I'm going to put those links to both. of our channels in the post description. of this video. If you're not yet. subscribed, please do us a favor and hit. subscribe. Glenn, in terms of the remedy. here, if you're arguing this in court, what do the Fulton County election. officials say um to be most persuasive. in convincing a judge that what's. happening here is what we all can see is. happening here, which is that the.

administration is trying to target yet. more election infrastructure in an. effort to ultimately be able to. interfere in the election as we head. toward midterms? Brian, they point to court cases where. claims of election fraud by Trump and. company were rejected. >> I mean, that's that's most of them. I. mean, the the the Trump administration. in 2020, going back to that year, filed. 65 lawsuits. 64 of them were won. The. only one they lost was a. a case in Pennsylvania shortening a. ballot cure deadline from nine to six.

days. That was ultimately overturned in. the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. So, they're they're basically just at a. complete loss when it comes to these. bogus claims of of election denialism. DOJ has no facts to support the. lawfulness of this grand jury subpoena. But the other thing that Fulton County. election officials will undoubtedly. um argue when they're trying to get the. judge to quash, throw out this subpoena. is things like, you know, Rudy Giuliani. in December 2020, acting as Donald.

Trump's personal lawyer, went before the. Georgia state legislature and made. misrepresentations. about who? Georgia election workers, Shay Moss and Ruby Freeman. And these, you know, misrepresentations about what. they were doing as election workers were. so egregious that they successfully sued. him for defamation and he was ordered to. pay out more than 140 million dollars. I. mean, that is some pretty strong. evidence of Trump at the time through.

his lawyer Rudy Giuliani engaged in, you. know, obvious lawlessness, defamation, misconduct, mischaracterization. of, you know, the the what was going on. in the 2020 election. Of course, they'll. probably point to the infamous call to. Brad Raffensperger, "Just find me 11,780. votes and corruptly declare me the. winner." I paraphrase there, but that. was clearly the corrupt ask by Donald. Trump. They will have, you know, abundant evidence to argue that, you.

know, this is. um this is nothing more than a. transparent attempt to undermine an. ongoing election, early voting, and to. continue to punish his perceived. enemies. And Brian, the other thing. they're clearly going to point to, well, guess what? Donald Trump and his dirty. DOJ leadership, they have priors on. issuing lawless subpoenas. It was just a. matter of weeks ago that they issued a. bogus, lawless series of subpoenas. trying to do what? Punish another Trump.

perceived enemy, Jerome Powell. What. happened? That issue was litigated. That. motion to quash, to throw out those. subpoenas was litigated in front of the. chief judge of Federal District Court in. Washington, D.C., Judge James Boasberg, and he threw them out. He granted the. motion to quash. And what happened in. pretty much the immediate aftermath of. that ruling throwing out those. subpoenas? Janine Pirro, the D.C. U.S. Attorney said, "Okay, okay, we're.

closing the criminal investigation into. Jerome Powell." I mean, what a tell. there. That's a concession. It's a de. facto admission that they had no. criminal case. They had no basis to. issue criminal grand jury subpoenas. looking into, you know, cost overruns at. the the renovation of the of the Fed. So, listen, Trump and company have. priors. All of this will make for a very.

compelling argument by the Fulton County. election officials that this is more of. the same, and let's hope a judge, you. know, does not buy into what the claim. will be from the Trump administration. They're going to say, "Okay, we know. that the Constitution provides that the. states run elections, not the federal. government. But, but, we think there's. evidence of foreign interference, and. that's a national security matter. And, you know, the courts have said generally.

that the executive branch's power and. authority is at its zenith when it deals. like things like, you know, national. security matters, foreign interference. in our government and our governing.". So, they're going to pull out that same. old tired line, which is nothing but. but they know it's the. strongest argument they have. But, you. know what? It's not a magical. incantation. You can't say foreign. interference, national security, and. then run roughshod over the rule of law.

and the Constitution and states' rights. So, you know, I am guardedly optimistic, Brian, that the federal judge, and. because this is a motion to quash, it. will probably be handled by the chief. judge in that federal jurisdiction down. in Georgia, because it is the chief. judge of all of the different federal. jurisdictions that have supervisory. responsibilities over the grand jury. So, it won't be the same magistrate. judge who issued that, you know, who who.

who approved that search warrant to. snatch up the Fulton County ballots in. the first place. It won't even be a full. federal judge. It is very likely to be. the chief judge, and I hope that the. chief judge gets this right. All right, last question here, Glenn. Let's say. that the chief judge does get it right. Is there a world where you have some. concern that this thing will get. appealed up to the U.S. Supreme Court, where, you know, obviously uh talk about. acting in good faith, those judge. justices are less likely to do so, as.

opposed to just blindly deferring to. Trump? In the upside down world we are living. in, Brian, I always have concern that. anything will end up at the Supreme. Court, a parking ticket, for gosh sakes. And I do not trust the Supreme Court to. be an honest broker of the law or the. Constitution. And, you know, I take no, you know, glee in saying that. I don't. think a battle over a subpoena and. whether it's lawful or not is likely to.

make it up to the Supreme Court. But, again, you know, the the caveat is. always with this Supreme Court. I'm not. laying any money on them doing the right. thing. Well, of course, we will stay on. top of this issue as soon as we get any. updates. Again, for those who are. watching, if you'd like to follow along, and if you want to see more legal. analysis, the best way to do that is to. subscribe to both of our channels. I'm. going to put those links right here on. the screen, and again, also in the post. description of this video. I'm Brian. Tyler Cohen.

And I'm Glenn Kirschner. You're watching. The Legal Breakdown. >> [music].