Democracy Docket

01/30/2026

As shocking as it was that the Department of Justice raided Fulton County to seize ballots from the 2020 election, it was not a surprise. Earlier this month, Donald Trump lamented that he had not seized the Georgia ballot boxes back in 2020. He told the World Economic Forum that “the 2020 U.S. presidential election was rigged” and that “people will soon be prosecuted for what they did.”

What was surprising was that the warrant did not originate from federal prosecutors in Georgia or Washington, D.C. Instead, it was sought by Thomas Albus, the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri.

My initial assumption was that the DOJ had found some tenuous connection between Fulton County and Missouri. Perhaps, I thought, the ballots had been printed or mailed from St. Louis, or voting equipment had come from a company with ties to Missouri.

Unfortunately, according to Bloomberg News, the reason is far more straightforward — and far more dangerous for free and fair elections.

According to the report, prior to the search, Albus was designated as a special assistant to the attorney general. Federal law permits special assistants to operate with nationwide jurisdiction and the ability to practice in any federal courthouse in the country.

When used appropriately, the special assistant designation allows lawyers with particular expertise to assist federal prosecutors in U.S. attorney’s offices. This White House, however, appears to be using it to empower specific Trump loyalists to circumvent and sideline career lawyers in local U.S. attorney’s offices.

Essentially, the White House and Attorney General Pam Bondi are creating the equivalent of special counsels — but without insulation from political influence. In this instance, Albus has reportedly been empowered to investigate election-integrity cases nationwide.

Far more dangerous is what Albus may do moving forward. There is no reason to believe he will limit his work to the 2020 presidential election. Republican candidates lodged bogus fraud claims in several high-profile races in 2022 and 2024.

Most worrisome, Albus may be pressured by the White House to use his prosecutorial power to interfere with the upcoming 2026 elections. It is one thing to seize old ballots; it is quite another to imagine federal agents seizing ballots from county offices on election night or the day after.

And that’s only the beginning of the chaos he could unleash. States and counties have limited supplies of voting machines and tabulators, and Trump has already threatened to unilaterally decertify certain machines.

A federal prosecutor willing to abuse his power would be a potent tool in achieving Trump’s stated goals. The same is true of mail-in ballots and other forms of voting that Trump seeks to outlaw or disrupt.