{"id":552912,"date":"2026-01-30T02:20:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T02:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/552912\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T02:20:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T02:20:12","slug":"fbis-georgia-raid-highlights-trumps-obsession-with-2020-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/552912\/","title":{"rendered":"FBI’s Georgia raid highlights Trump’s obsession with 2020 election"},"content":{"rendered":"

DENVER (AP) \u2014 Donald Trump lost his bid<\/a> for reelection in 2020. But for more than five years, he\u2019s been trying to convince Americans the opposite is true by falsely saying<\/a> the election was marred by widespread fraud.<\/p>\n

Now that he\u2019s president again, Trump is pushing the federal government to back up those bogus claims<\/a>. <\/p>\n

On Wednesday, the FBI served a search warrant<\/a> at the election headquarters of Fulton County, Georgia, which includes most of Atlanta, seeking ballots from the 2020 election. That follows Trump\u2019s comments earlier this month when he suggested during a speech at the World Economic Forum<\/a> in Davos, Switzerland, that charges related to the election were imminent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe man has obsessions, as do a fair number of people, but he\u2019s the only one who has the full power of the United States behind him,\u201d said Rick Hasen, a UCLA law professor.<\/p>\n

Hasen and many others noted that Trump\u2019s use of the FBI to pursue his obsession with the 2020 election is part of a pattern of the president transforming the federal government into his personal tool of vengeance<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sen. Jon Ossoff, a Georgia Democrat, compared the search to the Minnesota immigration crackdown that has killed two U.S. citizen protesters, launched by Trump as his latest blow against the state\u2019s governor,<\/a> who ran against him as Vice President Kamala Harris\u2019 running mate in 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom Minnesota to Georgia, on display to the whole world, is a President spiraling out of control, wielding federal law enforcement as an unaccountable instrument of personal power and revenge,\u201d Ossoff said in a statement.<\/p>\n

It also comes as election officials across the country are starting to rev up for the 2026 midterms, where Trump is struggling to help his party maintain its control of Congress. Noting that, in 2020, Trump contemplated using the military to seize voting machines<\/a> after his loss, some worry he\u2019s laying the groundwork<\/a> for a similar maneuver in the fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cGeorgia\u2019s a blueprint,\u201d said Kristin Nabers of the left-leaning group All Voting Is Local. \u201cIf they can get away with taking election materials here, what\u2019s to stop them from taking election materials or machines from some other state after they lose?\u201d<\/p>\n

Georgia has been at the heart of Trump\u2019s 2020 obsession. He infamously called Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Jan. 2, 2021, asking that Raffensperger \u201cfind\u201d 11,780 more votes<\/a> for Trump so he could be declared the winner of the state. Raffensperger refused, noting that repeated reviews<\/a> confirmed Democrat Joe Biden had narrowly won Georgia.<\/p>\n

Those were part of a series of reviews in battleground states, often led by Republicans, that affirmed Biden\u2019s win, including in Michigan<\/a>, Wisconsin<\/a> and Nevada<\/a>. Trump also lost dozens of court cases<\/a> challenging the election results and his own attorney general at the time said there was no evidence<\/a> of widespread fraud.<\/p>\n

His allies who repeated his lies have been successfully sued for defamation<\/a>. That includes former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who settled with two Georgia election workers<\/a> after a court ruled he owed them $148 million for defaming them after the 2020 election<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Voting machine companies also have brought defamation cases against some conservative-leaning news sites that aired unsubstantiated claims about their equipment being linked to fraud in 2020. Fox News settled one such case<\/a> by agreeing to pay $787 million after the judge ruled it was \u201cCRYSTAL clear\u201d<\/a> that none of the allegations were true.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s campaign to move Georgia into his column also sparked an ill-fated attempt to prosecute him and some of his allies<\/a> by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, a Democrat. The case collapsed after Willis was removed over conflict-of-interest concerns<\/a>, and Trump has since sought damages<\/a> from the office.<\/p>\n

On his first day in office, Trump rewarded some of those who helped him try to overturn the 2020 election results by pardoning, commuting or vowing to dismiss the cases of about 1,500 people<\/a> charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack<\/a> on the U.S. Capitol. He later signed an executive order<\/a> trying to set new rules for state election systems and voting procedures, although that has been repeatedly blocked by judges who have ruled that the Constitution gives states, and in some instances Congress, control of elections rather than the president.<\/p>\n

As part of his campaign of retribution, Trump also has spoken about wanting to criminally charge lawmakers who sat on the House committee<\/a> investigating the Jan. 6 attack<\/a>, suggesting protective pardons of them from Biden are legally invalid. He\u2019s targeted a former cybersecurity appointee<\/a> who assured the public in 2020 that the election was secure<\/a>.<\/p>\n

During a year of presidential duties, from dealing with wars in Gaza and Ukraine to shepherding sweeping tax and spending legislation through Congress, Trump has reliably found time to turn the subject to 2020. He has falsely called the election rigged, said Democrats cheated and even installed a White House plaque claiming Biden took office after \u201cthe most corrupt election ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was asked about the Fulton County search Thursday night as he headed into the premiere for \u201cMelania,\u201d<\/a> the first lady\u2019s documentary.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs you know, they got into the votes,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got a signed judge\u2019s order in Georgia and you\u2019re going to see some interesting things happening. They\u2019ve been trying to get there for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

David Becker, a former Department of Justice voting rights attorney and executive director of The Center for Election Innovation & Research, said he was skeptical the FBI search in Georgia would lead to any successful prosecutions. Trump has demanded charges against several enemies<\/a> such as former FBI Director James Comey and New York\u2019s Democratic Attorney General, Letitia James, that have stalled in court.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo much this administration has done is to make claims in social media rather than go to court,\u201d Becker said. \u201cI suspect this is more about poisoning the well for 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writers Darlene Superville and Michelle L. Price in Washington contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DENVER (AP) \u2014 Donald Trump lost his bid for reelection in 2020. But for more than five years,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":552913,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[7373,178590,72575,69,90,116732,10104,57,4353,49023,82,24460,27593,242383,24980,50,80,178493,70105,235115,89,51507,61,67,132,68,93],"class_list":{"0":"post-552912","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"category-us","9":"tag-2026-elections","10":"tag-brad-raffensperger","11":"tag-david-becker","12":"tag-donald-trump","13":"tag-elections","14":"tag-fani-willis","15":"tag-ga-state-wire","16":"tag-general-news","17":"tag-georgia","18":"tag-james-comey","19":"tag-joe-biden","20":"tag-jon-ossoff","21":"tag-kamala-harris","22":"tag-kristin-nabers","23":"tag-letitia-james","24":"tag-news","25":"tag-politics","26":"tag-rick-hasen","27":"tag-rudolph-giuliani","28":"tag-send-to-apple-news","29":"tag-u-s-democratic-party","30":"tag-u-s-federal-bureau-of-investigation","31":"tag-u-s-news","32":"tag-united-states","33":"tag-unitedstates","34":"tag-us","35":"tag-washington-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115981662496890614","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=552912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/552913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}