DENVER — Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election. But more than five years later, he continues to insist otherwise, repeating false claims that widespread fraud denied him a second term.
Now back in the White House, Trump is using the power of the federal government to pursue those claims.
On Wednesday, the FBI served a search warrant at the election headquarters of Fulton County, Georgia, which includes most of Atlanta, seeking ballots from the 2020 election. The move followed comments Trump made earlier this month at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he suggested charges tied to the election could be coming.
“The man has obsessions, as do a fair number of people, but he's the only one who has the full power of the United States behind him,” said Rick Hasen, a UCLA law professor.
Hasen and other critics say the FBI search fits a broader pattern of Trump using federal agencies to pursue personal grievances tied to his 2020 loss.
Sen. Jon Ossoff, a Georgia Democrat, compared the search to Trump’s recent immigration crackdown in Minnesota that resulted in the deaths of two U.S. citizen protesters. That action was launched against a governor who ran against Trump as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate in 2024.
“From 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,” Ossoff said in a statement.
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