MAJOR UPDATE on Trump’s election theft scheme

0:00 This is Democracy Watch.

0:01 Mark, we have a pretty explosive update here because we all watched as Tulsi

0:06 Gabbard led this effort to grab a bunch of ballots from Fulton County in 2020.

0:11 And the question that everybody was asking

0:13 was what what justification did a judge

0:17 get to actually allow this whole process to move forward, this crazy process?

0:23 We now have an update on that exact question.

0:26 Can you explain what that is?

0:27 Yeah, a journalist actually filed a motion to unseal the names of the witnesses.

0:34 Now, that may seem like a small thing,

0:35 but it is actually quite uh unusual and it's more even more unusual that it's

0:39 granted and this judge granted it

0:41 with everyone with respect except for one witness.

0:44 So, we're going to learn a lot about who are the people

0:47 who said what that led to this whole thing because it's a real,

0:51 you know, it's a real head scratcher.

0:53 You've got you've got an election that takes place in 2020.

0:56 you've got um you know a seizure

0:59 that a search and seizure that takes place in 2026.

1:02 We've all seen the affidavit right that's been released and that we

1:06 thought that maybe would tell us the story but the it's

1:08 kind of a threadbear affidavit uh that really didn't tell us like

1:13 I don't know how the magistrate found probable cause based on that.

1:16 So the next thing and like I said kudos to the the reporter who

1:20 who pursued this is well maybe if we know who the people are like who

1:24 are the witnesses who like who who said what to who maybe we'll learn

1:29 something about what this is and the fact

1:31 that the department of justice fought this

1:34 it tells you something about who those people probably are.

1:36 I suspect that this is not going to be uh let's

1:39 put it this way they're not going to be career civil servants.

1:43 Yeah.

1:43 if if we find out that these people are like stop the steel,

1:48 you know, Republican operatives, how does that change things?

1:52 And also, I mean, I I guess the the the million-dollar question here is how

1:56 would a judge kind of fall for it and see what's happening across the country,

2:02 see that, you know, this is a question

2:03 that's been litigated over and over and over.

2:06 In Arizona, we had the cyber ninjas.

2:08 You know, we've heard Donald Trump like issue

2:10 this idea that there was fraud in the election,

2:13 but there were 65 court cases and he lost 64 of them except

2:17 for a ballot cure deadline in Pennsylvania shortening from 9 to 6 days.

2:21 But like even the judges have to know

2:22 that this is just a farce being put forward by Trump.

2:25 And so, how did they get away with this?

2:28 Yeah.

2:28 And Brian, this has been the big question since the day of the search.

2:32 Like, we thought the affidavit would tell us the answers to that.

2:35 But, you know, in addition to everything you just said,

2:38 there is a statute of limitations, right?

2:40 And like we are in 2026,

2:42 there's a 5-year statute of limitations for whatever crimes they

2:45 are potentially looking at and the election was in 2020, right?

2:49 So, how was it that this was all done is still not really an answered question.

2:56 But what we are now going to learn more of is

2:59 who were the people like you know maybe it was

3:03 that the people who were bringing these allegations were of such

3:07 extraordinary public prominence and high character

3:11 that that's what tipped the scale.

3:12 I sort of suspect not because if that's who they were

3:15 I was going to say like cut to like Mike Lindell

3:17 is that like who is going to be of big enough stature.

3:20 EOJ would have put that out, right?

3:22 If they had an insider, a nonpartisan person, a Democrat, right?

3:27 They would have released that.

3:28 The fact that they fought tooth and nail not to release who these people

3:32 are tells you probably that they're going to be people who we expect they are.

3:36 But I think there is at some point going to have to be that question answered,

3:40 which is how did a federal magistrate judge,

3:43 looking at the affidavit that we've seen.

3:45 And assuming they that the witnesses were of the nature we suspect,

3:49 how the hell did this happen?

3:51 If a federal magistrate judge allowed

3:53 this to happen beyond the statute of limitations,

3:55 is there a world where judicial misconduct took place and there could be um,

4:00 you know, some consequence for that?

4:02 Potentially, although I think unlikely.

4:04 I mean the the usual remedy in a situation like this where you have a search

4:08 and seizure that the affidavit or the probable

4:12 cause was not there in the affidavit.

4:14 The usual remedy is suppression of the evidence, right?

4:17 Like it doesn't come in at trial, right?

4:19 The problem here is of course nobody's getting indicted for this, right?

4:23 There will never be a suppression hearing because

4:26 like this is all a bunch of right?

4:28 This is all politics.

4:30 This is all a dry run for 2026.

4:32 It's all about sour grapes in 2020.

4:34 So like usually the place that this gets

4:37 kind of like litigated out is someone gets

4:39 indicted and then they move to suppress

4:42 the evidence saying there was never a probable cause.

4:45 But you know we know what the Department of Justice is up to here.

4:48 They're not really trying to bring a criminal

4:51 case because there's not one to bring.

4:53 They're just abusing the grand jury process.

4:55 They're abusing the search and seizure process for political gain.

4:59 And you know that's what we saw some litigation by Fulton County

5:02 about and you know and to try to get their ballots back.

5:06 But you know I don't think in the end there's going to be a lot of justice here.

5:09 Now on that issue of vote suppression.

5:11 First of all I have to note that there is no

5:13 bigger champion in the independent media space for pointing out the fact

5:17 that Donald Trump is engaged in these voter suppressive or efforts

5:21 or efforts to interfere in the upcoming elections than you and your team.

5:25 So, I just want to make a note for anybody who's watching,

5:27 if you want to support that work,

5:29 if you want to get Mark's voice into the ecosystem even more,

5:32 a small step that everybody can and should

5:33 take right now is to subscribe to Democracy Docket.

5:36 That's the news outlet Mark founded to focus on everything voting and elections.

5:39 So, I'm going to put that link right here

5:41 on the screen and also in the post description of this video.

5:43 Click on those links, put it to the side for right now,

5:45 and make sure to sign up right after this video is done so that you

5:48 can make sure to again elevate Mark's

5:50 voice in this ecosystem as much as possible.

5:53 Mark, to that end, you know,

5:55 there are going to be folks who are watching this and say like, "So what?

5:58 Donald Trump grabbed a bunch of ballots in 2020.

6:01 That election is long gone.

6:03 What damage could he really do by grabbing six-year-old

6:06 ballots?" And so what would be your response to that?

6:09 Yeah.

6:09 So look, I think there are two reasons why this is taking place.

6:12 One is to vindicate the big lie, to try to perpetuate the big lie.

6:16 And that is dangerous.

6:17 It is not an answer to say that was six years

6:20 ago because it is still front and center in Donald Trump's mind.

6:23 It remains the unifying theory and thesis and glue that is holding together

6:28 this this MAGA coalition that is fracturing on a whole lot of other issues.

6:32 The one thing that is holding them together is

6:35 this 2020 lie that Donald Trump continues to perpetuate.

6:38 So that's one reason.

6:39 But the second Brian, as you and I have talked about,

6:41 there is also an element of like learning and dry run for 2026.

6:45 Like they want to keep these ballots.

6:47 They want to be able to to engage in this kind of activity.

6:50 They want to keep secret the witnesses because they want to be able

6:54 to do this in 2026 if Donald Trump feels like he needs to.

6:58 And Brian, look at the polls.

7:00 Like, you know, what has happened in the last three months?

7:04 Uh, other than Donald Trump's gotten more unpopular,

7:07 uh, he started a war that is unbelievably unpopular.

7:12 Prices have gone up, not down, right?

7:14 I mean like his candid his campaigns, you know,

7:17 the the Republican party is in a shambles.

7:21 Yeah.

7:20 I mean, he's only going to be more desperate, right,

7:23 in 2026 as we are going along.

7:26 And so, you know, if you think he did a ballot seizure and was one and done,

7:32 then you haven't been listening to him because he actually

7:34 said he wished he had seized the ballots in 2020.

7:36 He told that to the New York Times in January.

7:38 I'm sure as we sit here now in May, you know,

7:41 he he he's wishing he wants that capability in 2026 as well.

7:44 And and frankly, two things on that.

7:47 He is looking to seize the ballots elsewhere.

7:49 We had Chad Bianca, who's a gubernatorial candidate in in my state

7:52 of P of California who sees 650,000 ballots from Riverside County.

7:57 So, this is, you know, Donald Trump kind of issuing his clarion

8:01 call and other Republicans heeding that call.

8:03 But putting that aside,

8:05 this isn't the only part of election infrastructure that Trump is attacking.

8:08 Also in Fulton County,

8:10 there was an effort by the Trump administration uh to get the names

8:13 of anybody who was involved in the whole election pro uh process.

8:18 Can you explain a little bit of that whole scandal that's just been revealed?

8:22 Yeah, this is a major scandal uh that's

8:24 brewing uh that could have uh devastating consequences nationwide.

8:29 Uh Donald Trump's Department of Justice wants the names of all

8:34 2,000 2,000 people who worked any aspect of the election.

8:40 Okay?

8:40 Any aspect.

8:41 Like it doesn't matter whether you were checking in people

8:43 at a poll in Fulton County or you were, you know,

8:47 the director of elections in Fulton County or, you know,

8:50 maybe even the people who were cleaning up the offices in Fulton County.

8:54 Like if you were any place near this, he wants your name.

8:57 Now, the reason why this has dev could

8:59 have devastating consequences nationwide is that number one,

9:02 we have already seen what Donald Trump does when he gets those names.

9:05 People get doxed, people get intimidated,

9:07 he posts about them in the middle of the night,

9:09 they get lied about, they get threats,

9:11 and he is setting up a permission structure for that to happen.

9:14 and a threat to people working all around the country,

9:18 whether they're in Fulton County or in Los Angeles County,

9:20 whether they are in New Mexico or in New England,

9:22 like he is setting up a situation that no one who works an election that he may

9:26 lose is safe from his potential uh retribution

9:31 and and all of all that comes with that.

9:33 And then the second thing thing is Brian, you know,

9:36 I think that he wants to know who all these people are because he's

9:40 also trying to figure out how well

9:41 they have infiltrated these offices moving forward, right?

9:44 You got a baseline of a fairly administered election in 2020.

9:48 He's trying to compromise that by having

9:50 people like the Tina Peters of the world, not literally Tina Peters,

9:53 she's currently in prison in in Colorado, but people like that.

9:56 And this is a way for him to compare, okay, how many of those people still left?

10:00 How many of those people are gone?

10:02 How many have we replaced?

10:03 Hey Todd Blanch, I need the DOJ to take

10:06 action to kick more of these 2,000 people out.

10:09 Yeah.

10:10 It's also worth noting that, okay, if Donald Trump has a list of all

10:14 2,000 people who work the election in Fulton County,

10:17 that might not be a big problem if he didn't also seek the voter roles

10:21 that would give the federal government a bunch

10:23 of information on exactly who those 2,000 people are.

10:26 So, the fact that he's doing both of those things in conjunction,

10:29 trying to get the voter roles from every single jurisdiction

10:31 and trying to get the information on who is working these elections,

10:36 he can put two and two together.

10:37 He'll be able to see if they're registered Democrats or registered

10:39 Republicans and then figure out who he wants to purge,

10:42 who he wants to attack, who he wants to dox,

10:44 but he's doing all of these things in conjunction.

10:46 And by the way, I should note for folks

10:48 who are watching right now that Mark has lawsuits

10:50 in roughly 30 states across the country blocking

10:54 the federal government from gaining access to these voter roles.

10:56 So the only thing stopping uh Donald Trump

10:59 from being able to see your social security number,

11:01 your voter affiliation, what have you,

11:04 is the fact that he has these lawsuits that are right now

11:07 um basically the only thing blocking Trump from getting all that information.

11:10 But I mean, you know, it's not it shouldn't be lost on any

11:14 of us that having all of this information in conjunction

11:17 is certainly going to be helpful if he's if

11:19 he's looking to prevent certain people from working our elections.

11:23 No, that's exactly right.

11:25 And you know, these lawsuits to prevent access to these voter

11:27 roles are critically important for for a number of reasons,

11:30 and you you you've mentioned some of them.

11:32 But I also think that we need to recognize that the Department

11:37 of Justice is doing this but has actually gotten worse.

11:41 You know, I think that one of the the under reportported stories

11:44 right now is that when we talk about the Department of Justice,

11:47 we used to be talking about Pam Bondi who was not particularly effective,

11:52 you know, lied a lot, was a sickant, but like

11:55 had her moments in which she seemed

11:57 to displease uh the president, hence the dear Pam.

12:02 uh social media the post.

12:03 Yeah.

12:04 Todd Blanch has come out of the box and been like, "No, no, no.

12:07 I will do whatever Donald Trump wants." Like,

12:09 he's actually not saying that he will

12:12 do anything other than salute Donald Trump.

12:15 And if Donald Trump wants to go over his political enemies,

12:17 Todd Blanch will do it.

12:18 And he's, you know, I hate to say it, he's a lot more competent than Pam Bond.

12:22 You know, he's a former federal prosecutor.

12:24 He knows where how to pull the strings within the Department

12:27 of Justice in a much more fundamentally capable way than Pam Bondi was.

12:32 And he's willing to do anything that Donald Trump tells him to do.

12:36 Anything.

12:37 And so it's actually a lot more dangerous than it was,

12:40 you know, just 3 months ago.

12:42 Yeah.

12:42 All of which again underscores the need to have fighters

12:44 in this space who are capable of and willing to litigate this stuff.

12:48 Uh, and there is no bigger and better fighter than you in this space,

12:52 especially when it comes to voting rights, elections, what have you.

12:55 So again, for those who are watching right now,

12:57 to support Mark's work and to elevate his voice in this ecosystem,

13:01 please subscribe to Democracy Docket.

13:02 I'm going to put that link right here on the screen

13:04 and also in the post description of this video.

13:05 I'm Brian Teller Cohen.

13:07 I'm Mark Elias.

13:08 This is Democracy Watch.