In the House Judiciary Committee hearing today, Attorney General Pam Bondi is dodging questions like she's in The Matrix and deflecting by glorifying Trump — extraordinary behavior for official who has traditionally been expected to act independently and in a nonpartisan manner in enforcing the law.

‼️More here on the newly released DOJ search warrant affidavit for the FBI's election hub raid in Fulton County, Georgia. Who are the people behind the affidavit and its allegations? Some were named; others @democracydocket.com identified.

The DOJ has released the affidavit for the FBI raid on a Fulton County, Georgia election hub. It's bonkers. Turns out, the search was largely predicated on debunked voter fraud claims pushed by election deniers since Trump’s 2020 loss — including some who now work in his administration.

In Fulton County, there had been a mystery as to what the evidence that the magistrate used to find probable cause would it look like. Now there’s a new mystery: how in the world did the magistrate approve this bunch of recycled and discredited allegations to find probable cause?

"The First Amendment protects the right to vote free from intimidation," the official said. "The seizure of all 2020 election records in a highly public and intimidating show of federal force... directly threatens that interest.”

"The GOP’s repeal campaign relied on Patriot Grassroots, a Wyoming-based petition firm paid more than $4.3 million to manage signature gathering in Utah. The firm’s contract was terminated as allegations of fraud and misleading practices mounted."

Also: We have a 'submit resume for future openings' now, and are going to be posting more jobs later this year. We're funded by our 50K+ members paying $120/year, plus some YouTube ads, not a billionaire's whims. Legit, openly left-leaning, independent news outlet full of veteran journalists.

HAPPENING NOW: Democracy Docket’s Matt Cohen is reporting live from the National Secretaries of State conference. Pam Bondi, Kristi Noem and Tulsi Gabbard will soon speak to the states’ top election officials. Follow along for the latest updates👇

The massive government funding package just failed badly in the Senate, 45-55. Needed 60. Zero Democrats voted for it. SEVEN Republicans opposed it: Budd Johnson Lee Paul Moody Rick Scott Tuberville (John Thune switched his vote to no for procedural reasons.)

North Carolina election officials are considering a plan to flag voters as “presumptive noncitizens” and potentially strike them from the state’s voter rolls. There are no indications that rare, illegal "noncitizen voting" happens at a scale that could threaten election outcomes in NC.

🚨BREAKING: Pam Bondi, Kristi Noem and Tulsi Gabbard are slated to speak at the National Association of Secretary of States conference tomorrow. Democracy Docket reporter @mattdcohen.bsky.social will be on the scene. Check back in then for more details.

NEWS: Mich SOS @jocelynbenson.bsky.social announced an update to an investigation into allegations made by Macombe Clerk that 15 noncitizens were registered to vote. Turns out 3 are actually U.S. citizens, 4 had voter registrations canceled. Background: www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

Two top Democrats in Fulton County, Georgia allege that the FBI lacked the authority for Wednesday’s raid of the county’s central election hub, in which the Feds seized 700 boxes of ballots and other election materials related to the 2020 vote.

BREAKING: In a rare move, the FBI executed a search warrant at Fulton County, Georgia's main election operations center. The raid comes amid an ongoing federal probe of the 2020 election in Georgia, directed by President Donald Trump.

Minnesota state attorneys alleged in court Monday that President Donald Trump and the Department of Justice are attempting to force the state to surrender its sovereignty — in particular, its control over elections — through the massive federal immigration operation in the Twin Cities region.

NEW: State election officials are condemning Attorney General Pam Bondi for blackmailing Minnesota by suggesting the administration would withdraw ICE if the state hands over its unredacted voter data. An expert said the proposal is “laying the groundwork to try to interfere with the election.”

pretty wild statement re: Republican Chris Madel drop from race for MN governor: "Saying he cannot support the national GOP's 'stated retribution on citizens of our state, nor can I count myself a member of a party that would do so."

🚨BREAKING: Hours after federal immigration officers shot and killed a man in Minneapolis, Pam Bondi seized upon the incident to demand access to voter rolls, directly tying the Trump administration’s quest for voters’ unredacted personal data to its aggressive immigration raids across the state.

After a Border Patrol agent killed Alex Pretti today, attorney general Pam Bondi demanded that Minnesota end “sanctuary policies,” work with ICE, and — wait for it — give the DOJ access to its unredacted voter rolls. Make note: Attacks on elections are central to Trump's assault on democracy.

🚨BREAKING: Federal court DISMISSES Department of Justice's lawsuit to obtain Georgia's full voter file information for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Essentially, the geniuses at DOJ filed in the wrong court. Dhillon and DOJ are now 0-3 in these cases. www.democracydocket.com/cases/georgi...

President Trump was on a posting binge this morning, sharing debunked conspiracy theory after debunked conspiracy theory about the 2020 election.

Stark warning from ex-special counsel Jack Smith in Congress today: “My fear is that we have seen the rule of law function in our country for so long that many of us have come to take it for granted. “The rule of law is not self-executing. It depends on our collective commitment to apply it.”

NEW: In his first public testimony, former special counsel Jack Smith warned Trump’s targeted attacks against civil servants in the DOJ pose a grave threat to the rule of law — a standard he affirmed “is not self-executing.”

NEWS: Pentagon ordered active-duty soldiers with a military police unit in NC to prepare for possible deployment to Minneapolis, three people familiar told @ms.now Prepare to deploy order was issued yesterday for at least a few hundred members of an Army military police brigade based at Fort Bragg

In case you missed it, embattled Trump appointee Lindsey Halligan just got DESTROYED by federal judges. One slammed her in a ruling for ignoring court orders disqualifying her from serving as interim U.S. attorney. Another announced they were hiring her replacement.

Dark Manu

Revenge of the federal judges in the Eastern District of Virginia: They've now announced that disqualified Trump appointee Lindsey Halligan is out, the U.S. Attorney role is vacant, qualified attorneys can apply for the job, and they — the federal judges — are the ones doing the hiring.

This is a transparent attempt to create a pretext for invoking the Insurrection Act. One provision applies when a group of people "opposes or obstructs the execution of the laws of the United States or impedes the course of justice under those laws." And when it's (allegedly) the state itself...

NEW: When opponents of Missouri’s new, GOP-backed election map began gathering signatures to hold a veto referendum, they faced intense opposition from Republicans. A new ethics disclosure shows how much the GOP spent fighting their efforts: $2.9 million.

Worth a read. This is an extremely useful story explaining why the SCOTUS ruling on Callais may not help Republican-controlled states redistrict prior to the midterms — or it could lead to late, chaotic and extremely risky gerrymanders.

“It’s some deep psychological thing, but when you win the presidency, you don’t win the midterms,” Trump said. He then boasted that he had accomplished so much that, “when you think of it, we shouldn’t even have an election.”

Donald Trump is setting the stage to invoke the Insurrection Act and send the military into Minnesota to put down protests against ICE. It could be a dress rehearsal of his administration's plans for other states and, potentially, the whole country.

I really want ppl w/o Minneapolis connections to understand You might've heard that Mpls public schools went hybrid bc so many families are in hiding. Well, a coworker just told me that today, during his kid's hybrid class, a kid's apt building was raided onscreen *Everyone has stories like this*

Former Fed chairs & Treasury secs on DOJ probe against Jerome Powell: "This is how monetary policy is made in emerging markets with weak institutions, with highly negative consequences for inflation and the functioning of their economies more broadly. It has no place in the United States..."

Vigil for the victims of ICE’s terrorism. Hyattsville, Md. 01/11/2026.

🚨BREAKING: Trump today cast fresh doubt on NATO’s reliability, saying he was not convinced the alliance would come to Washington’s aid in a crisis, as tensions rose over the White House's renewed push to acquire Greenland. Full story:

Trump's Greenland threats undermine his own efforts to secure a peace deal in Ukraine. Any US security guarantee included in such a deal would be hard to take seriously if he is willing to ignore the security guarantee the US already has with Denmark.

Inquiring millennials want to know: What comes first — us hitting retirement or the complete release of the Epstein files?

Everyone else: "Stop trying to make 'stolen election' happen! It's not going to happen!" Election deniers: "Maduro!"

The "President of Peace" who ran as a critic of American adventurism abroad just announced that the US will "run" #Venezuela for a while and he's "not afraid of boots on the ground." Did you have that on your 2026 bingo card?

One detail @adriancarrasquillo.bsky.social was smart to pick up on in his big scoop on the impending ICE invasion of Arizona: "What Arizonans told me is they now see in Trump an Arpaio at the national level—and a threat to immigrants that is that much broader."

The Minnesota welfare scandal is directing all sorts of right-wing conspiracy theorists to focus their attention on the state, including election denialists. Now the DOJ has taken up the (very weak) allegations of one such denialist.

There's a reason Kilmar Abrego Garcia's case shocked Americans: Because it was so blatantly illegal and performatively cruel. Now, a court order suggests the DOJ pressed criminal charges against him in retaliation for fighting back in court — and winning.

"Consequently, mail sent in rural areas will be postmarked and delivered at least one day later than before. And for mail voters, submitting their ballots the day or two before Election Day could mean it arrives too late to be counted — even in states that offer grace periods for tardy votes."

This is an important story, but has largely flown under the radar because the only sources were MAGA pundits. Now, Pam Bondi has pulled back the curtain on the potential next stage in Trump’s retribution campaign.

"President Donald Trump’s military takeover of Chicago will not go forward after the Supreme Court Tuesday upheld a lower court ruling halting his attempt to send hundreds of National Guard troops to the city."

"Missourians filed a lawsuit Tuesday asking a court to stop the state from using its new congressional map until voters have the chance to approve or reject the measure in a referendum."

NEW: The Department of Justice likely deleted an image depicting photographs of President Donald Trump from its online disclosure of the Epstein files. The missing image adds to mounting inconsistencies in the DOJ’s release of the files. ✍️: @jaknutson.bsky.social

Among the Epstein files is this photograph of a shirtless Umar Dzhabrailov, a Russian businessman and politician who represented Chechnya in the Russian Senate from 2004-2009. #Russia

Fantastic investigation by @kyivindependent.com. It sheds light on online fundraisers that claimed to help sick children in #Ukraine. In reality, they used the kids' images to raise millions from unsuspecting people around the world. Very little of that money ever reached the children themselves.