Last week, the FBI raided an election hub in Fulton County, Georgia and seized 700 boxes filled with 2020 election materials. The surprise execution of the search warrant took place in the dead of night with Tulsi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence, watching from the wings. Now, Americans are beset with anxiety over whether or not the 2026 midterm elections will happen and, if they do, we’ll be able to trust the results.
Lauren Groh-Wargo, CEO of Fair Fight, joins Jen from Fulton County HQ to unpack Trump’s latest — and quite worrying — authoritative overreach. Groh-Wargo provides invaluable insight from the “scene” of the crime and makes a case that Trump’s electoral smash and grab won’t work. As she tells Jen, “people who care about democracy are going to learn a lot about how to have the most reasonably fair elections in the fall.”
Lauren Groh-Wargo is the CEO of Fair Fight, a national voting rights organization established by Stacey Abrams. She is a longtime strategist for Stacey Abrams and managed Abrams’ gubernatorial campaigns.
Jen Rubin
Hi, this is Jen Rubin, Editor-in-Chief of The Contrarian. I am delighted to have back with us Lauren Groh Wargo from Fairfight. Welcome!
Lauren Groh-Wargo
Thank you for having me, Jen.
Jen Rubin
My pleasure. What is going on in Fulton County? It seems as though the feds came in, grabbed a bunch of documents. Do we have an inventory of what they took? Do we know exactly what they took?
Lauren Groh-Wargo
Well, as you know, Jen, and I’m sure your listeners know, Fulton County’s been at the center of a whole compendium of election conspiracies going back to 2020 that have been disproven by Democrats, by Republicans, by audits, by hand recounts, but Donald Trump and his minions are obsessed with Fulton County. I’m sitting here in Fulton County, in my home office in Fulton County. It is the only county Trump’s DOJ has sued for voting information, and last week they decided that their civil cases weren’t moving fast enough. And they were, in my opinion, losing the press story with their unbelievably atrocious activity of their ICE henchmen and women, and sent about two dozen FBI agents, not from our local office. from the national operation into our election center in South Fulton County, and came with a warrant to seize several hundred boxes of 2020 elections material. It is outrageous. It’s fundamentally about an entire pretense to try to change how elections are done in the fall. And to your specific question, no. These agents came, there was a lot of conversation about the accuracy of the warrant, there was back and forth in that, there’s been reporting on it. But ultimately, they did leave and load up trucks full of huge pallets of elections material without elections officials or the clerk of Fulton County being able to fully inventory what they took. And, they moved it out. This is an unbelievable escalation based on a bunch of conspiracy theories or lies, and right now, for the past couple of days. Kalita Mitchell, all these conspiracy theorists locally, the Election Integrity Network, True the Vote, and a whole compendium. of people who used to be far fringe radical, but who are now centered in the Trump universe, are all bragging and taking credit, and there was just reported a couple hours ago that Tulsi Gabbard, while she was here, put Trump on the phone with the FBI agents right after the raid. So this is a huge escalation that, is very, very authoritarian and a very significant cause for alarm.
Jen Rubin
How many times have those ballots been counted?
Lauren Groh-Wargo
They have gone through two recounts, there has been litigation about them, there has been an investigation by the state election board, there has been so many inquiries, I’ve lost track, but there were two recounts. And there’s been independent investigation. There is no there there. This is not about anything but the fact that we are no longer dealing with a political party. A political party tries to persuade you for their votes. Right. Authoritarians try to grab the machinery of elections and control the outcome. And so, look. this all appears to be based on a whole slew of already debunked conspiracy theories and lies. We’re not sure what the underlying affidavit was for the actual warrant that a magistrate signed off on. people are claiming in the right wing, in Election Integrity Network, credit for a report that’s going around, allegedly, that maybe underpinned the warrant. We’ve looked at that line by line. those claims have been debunked. So, this is a distraction from their failures nationally, from the fact that they have weaponized a sort of stormtrooper-like force in ice. that has completely, you know, flipped. The American public are so strongly against it. So I think the timing was very suspicious in terms of that. And then this is all kind of coming… people gotta remember, around the country, this is happening in Georgia in the context of a very active state legislative session that just started in January, where we have, just today, back and forth on an elections bill to change how elections are run this fall. The Georgia Republican Party is putting out missives around how they want to cut early vote. And let’s be clear, Fulton County is the largest county in the state. It’s a county that goes strongly for Democrats every time, and it’s a county that’s majority Black. So all of this is directly racial about voters they don’t like. Voters are trying to intimidate and silence. It’s connected to their grab, they’re trying to grab all these voter rolls around the country so they can know who they want to suppress. But ultimately, Jen, I don’t think this is gonna work. Here’s why. Number one. Now elections officials know that this is what could be coming. So you can better believe every county attorney and elections official across the country, our Capitol is packed full of them today. They are outraged. This is egregious. Local elections officials Ballots are not like any other material. I know we all watch Law and Order and think we understand criminal procedure, but look, ballots are not like any other thing warrants can seize. These are very special documents that have to be in the custody of local elections officials. The federal government does not run elections. Ultimately, this is going to, you know… ultimately, it might take time. I believe this is not going to go anywhere, but a lot of people are going to be harmed along the way.
Jen Rubin
But this is gonna prepare us for the fall. How did they get a magistrate to sign off on this? They had to have believed that there was probable cause that these documents related to a crime. What possible crime within the statute of limitations could there have been that would have compelled a judge, a magistrate, to sign off on this?
Lauren Groh-Wargo
This is the question we all have, and so folks know that there’s a warrant that you have to present, right? What underlies a warrant is an affidavit that is under seal, that is, it’s not public, that the judge has to sign off on. And that goes to your question, Jen. What is the probable cause? So. look, I am not a criminal defense lawyer, that is not my line of work, but this is how I understand it, is when you’re going through a proceeding like this. there is not the venue or opportunity for judges to have a trial and interview folks and find out if this is legitimate. And so we don’t fundamentally know what is in that affidavit. I think we’re gonna see… the story is not over. I think there are efforts underway to get that unsealed. Fulton County voters need to know what is going on here to have such an egregious action taken to answer the questions you have just asked. This is a matter of utmost importance because these guys have figured out how to seize ballots for the first time. So we don’t know the answer to that question. All we do know, sitting here today, is that there is an election integrity claimed report that’s going around, that they’re all saying and taking credit for this warrant. What I can tell you on that report is a whole bunch of lies and idiocy about how elections work and conspiracy theories. So it’s unclear what got a magistrate judge to sign off on this warrant. I think time will tell, hopefully there’ll be a legal fight, hopefully there’ll be discovery. This story won’t be over. Hopefully through all of this. People who care about democracy, Republicans, Democrats, and Independents, people who care about a two-party system, are gonna learn a lot about how we prepare to have the most reasonably fair elections in the fall. Because what we cannot have happen is that we vote in Fulton County in the fall, and then certain people’s votes are seized. Certain people’s votes are thrown away. And I can tell you. They say the quiet thing out loud, they do the quiet thing out loud.
Jen Rubin
Yep.
Lauren Groh-Wargo
we’re all gonna collectively be ready, and I don’t just mean fair fight. I mean every good American who believes in democracy and doesn’t want to become an autocracy. We’re seeing massive mobilizations around ICE, we’re seeing massive public opinion shifts here, and ultimately, it’s gonna be on everybody listening to vote, to become poll workers. to pull in your Republican friends, to find new allies, because this is… egregious. And the other thing that’s gonna happen here, Jen, is any day now, we’re gonna have a Supreme Court rule on the Voting Rights Act.
Jen Rubin
Yes.
Lauren Groh-Wargo
And so all of these threads are about to come together in the coming months about whose votes matter, whose votes count, do we trust Black elections officials, or are we gonna dox them, like we did with Ruby Freeman, who is, back again, mentioned, if folks remember, Ruby Freeman was an elections worker. that they created a bunch of lies about. It was all debunked. She ended up suing Giuliani. Well, her name’s back in this report, Jen? This is just recycled. So, look, we want to know… And we believe Fulton County voters and the American people need to understand what could compel a judge to sign off on something like this. In my view, those ballots better be returned back into the custody of our clerk. Those are our votes. And, certainly hoping that our Fulton County Commission fights, and I know all the advocates are looking at every angle we can to understand this, and to then, number three, prepare for the fall. So I know elections officials nationally are having this conversation now about how do they prepare to protect our votes.
Jen Rubin
So, there is litigation underway. The idea is to have that subpoena that warrant quashed, get the ballots back, to Fulton County. Can Fulton County then investigate and take any action against Whoever, whichever aspect of the government did this, because they have no right to do this. And the fact that they have no right to do this goes to the litigation that is currently underway in all these places to get unredacted voting files, which they don’t have the right to. Hence, Pam Bondi used it as leverage to try to extort this information out of Minnesota with a promise that maybe ICE would go away if this were handed over.
Lauren Groh-Wargo
So, two things on that. Number one, Bondi’s attempt at blackmail in Minnesota, I think, reveals the fundamental here, that they are going to lengths of a Putin autocratic level to control the fall elections. The only reason you want a voter file in the states is so you can understand how to much more surgically suppress the votes you don’t want, and which votes to go after. Number two, there is no litigation yet filed in Fulton. There’s been conflicting press today. There was one of the county commissioners said it was coming. I… there… the Fulton County chair has said they’re gonna fight, and they’re looking at legal options, so no litigation has been filed as of 421 p.m. Eastern Time on Monday, February 2nd, but there’s clearly something in the works. Based on their public statements today, and I think that’s some of the options I would expect that they are looking at, which is, how do you claw back materials in what I would assume, will be viewed as an unlawful warrant or some sort of excessive warrant. And plus, you know, they already had… the Trump folks already had a civil case going in Fulton with a judge. saying that they could pay for copies of records rather than originals. You know, if they really want to do another recount, they could do it under the supervision of a third party, some sort of special master. The fact that they didn’t play ball through a proceeding, but rather smashed and grabbed, literally, Jen, they went in there with huge, like, chainsaws and things to cut open the cages where this stuff was. It was pretty… They didn’t smash things, but there was an aggressive grabbing, so…
Jen Rubin
I see that.
Lauren Groh-Wargo
They snapped and grabbed, there you go. So, I… again, like, this story’s not over, so stay tuned, because I think the fight in Fulton is obviously gonna portend a lot about what the future holds. And what the various options are, overall. And look, when it comes to litigation, as I’m sure your listeners know, we as in the good guys, as in the pro-democracy side, are winning a lot in the lower courts. So, you know, I’m hopeful that as this spools out, we’ll have, we’ll have some good pro-vote or pro-democracy, very, reasonable victories. But, you know, the Supreme Court seems to be a federalist society rubber stamp for the president, and so it’s very, very concerning. And I think what folks have to understand is yes, we need to litigate, yes, we need to protest in March, yes, we need to be informed, but I think folks need to understand that these ideas percolating around, around general strikes and mass mobilizations and more… Broad human action and collective action is going to be necessary as we go through this.
Jen Rubin
Absolutely.
Lauren Groh-Wargo
the people, ultimately, are the only ones that can stop this, and that’s where I have confidence, because I feel like people’s eyes are getting really opened up through this.
Jen Rubin
Absolutely. Well, I would leave our audience with two things. First of all, this was the first, but every election official in the country, every secretary of State, every governor, is now coming up with a game plan so that they won’t have to wait 3 or 4 days, that they will within minutes of anything like this happening, be able to respond. And the second thing is, if they’re planning on massive re-redistricting after a CalA, they might want to rethink that, and that’s because the margins are so large in the shift in the electorate that, remember those Texas seats that they moved? Well, Democrats just moved a state Senate race 31 points. So, if you’re gonna re-redistrict, that is, cut lines, you are making the margins narrower in some places. So, even if Calais is a loss, let’s see what Republicans actually think they’re going to do, because they may have pulled off the dumbest gerrymander in history. So, we will see. But Lauren, you are a wealth of information. Thank you. Thank you for everything that Fair Fight is doing. You guys are a national treasure, and we will check back with you on the progress of Fulton County and the rest of our electoral system. So, take care. Thanks so much.
Lauren Groh-Wargo
Appreciate you.
