When the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided the Fulton county election office in Georgia last month, the decision was based on debunked claims from election deniers and came after a referral from a White House lawyer who tried to overturn the 2020 election, a search warrant affidavit unsealed on Tuesday reveals.
The FBI’s investigation “originated” from a referral sent by Kurt Olsen, an attorney who sought to overturn the 2020 election and contacted justice department officials to urge them to file a motion at the US supreme court to nullify the election. Olsen began working at the White House last year to investigate supposed election fraud.
The FBI’s witnesses in the investigation include a cadre of conservative activists who have been hounding state officials with claims of wrongdoing in Fulton county for years. Many of their claims have been investigated by state officials and debunked.
Other witnesses include two Trump-aligned members of the Georgia state election board whom Trump publicly praised as “pitbulls” at a 2024 rally. Those two members are Janice Johnston and Janelle King, who is married to Kelvin King, a current candidate for Georgia secretary of state.
The unprecedented raid has only elevated concern Donald Trump will seek to interfere in this year’s midterm elections. That worry escalated further when it emerged that Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, was present at the Fulton county raid. Gabbard is said to be running her own separate investigation from the one being run by the justice department.
Debunked claims from election deniers influenced FBI raid in Georgia, affidavit reveals
Trump lost Georgia in 2020 by nearly 12,000 votes, a result that was twice confirmed. Claims of wrongdoing have nonetheless been central to his efforts to keep alive the myth that the 2020 election was stolen.
Congressmen name six wealthy men ‘likely incriminated’ in Epstein files
The Democratic congressman Ro Khanna said on Tuesday that he and his Republican colleague Thomas Massie had forced the justice department to disclose the “hidden” names of six wealthy men they say are “likely incriminated” by their inclusion in the so-called Jeffrey Epstein files.
In a post on X, Khanna, of California, named the six as Salvatore Nuara, Zurab Mikeladze, Leonic Leonov, Nicola Caputo, Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem and Leslie Wexner.
‘They always gave us the heaviest work’: how Maga billionaires relied on Mexican labor
When JD Vance delivered a speech about the US economy late last year at a Uline facility in Allentown, Pennsylvania, he talked up the Trump administration’s key goals: removing “illegal aliens” from the country, rewarding companies that keep jobs in the US, and paying Americans good wages.
“We’re going to reward companies that build here in America and give good wages to do it,” Vance said.
The venue was no accident. Uline, a multibillion-dollar, privately held office-supply company, is owned by Liz and Richard Uihlein, two of the biggest donors to Maga Republicans in the 2024 election.
But when it comes to immigration, Uline’s employment practices over the last several years provide an alternative picture of how the US economy works in the real world.
Epstein engineered intimate relationship for Tesla’s Kimbal Musk, emails show
Jeffrey Epstein engineered an intimate relationship between a woman in his network and Kimbal Musk, the brother of Elon Musk and who is on the board of directors at Tesla, according to emails from the Department of Justice’s recent release of documents. The younger Musk and the woman were involved for about six months between 2012 and 2013, with Kimbal Musk describing them as “dating”.
Local police aid ICE by tapping school cameras amid Trump’s immigration crackdown
Police departments across the US are quietly leveraging school district security cameras to assist Donald Trump’s mass immigration enforcement campaign, an investigation by the 74 reveals.
Hundreds of thousands of audit logs spanning a month show police are searching a national database of automated license plate reader data, including from school cameras, for immigration-related investigations.
Mark Carney reminds Trump that Canada paid for key border bridge US president says he won’t open
The Canadian prime minister said he had held a “positive” conversation with Donald Trump after the US leader threatened to block a new key bridge between their two countries, reminding the president that Canada paid for the structure – and that the US shares ownership.
Ex-Florida police chief claims Trump told him ‘everyone’ knew what Epstein was doing in 2006
Donald Trump criticized Jeffrey Epstein about two decades ago, claiming “everyone has known he’s been doing this”, a former Palm Beach police chief claimed.
Michael Reiter’s account of a conversation with Trump, contained within the justice department’s release of 3m Epstein files, dramatically contrasts with the US president’s public statements. After Epstein’s arrest in July 2019, Trump said “I had no idea” when asked if he knew about his former friend’s abuse of teenage girls.
Trump administration removes LGBTQ+ Pride flag from Stonewall national monument
The New York City monument commemorates the June 1969 riots that followed a police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village. The six days of protests against the police action were a key moment in sparking the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement, and the site has since become a national symbol of LGBTQ+ Pride. It’s the latest move by the federal government to end diversity initiatives and sanitize the history shared in national parks.
What else happened today:
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The acting director of ICE told a congressional committee on Tuesday that his agency is a “key part of the overall security apparatus for the World Cup” and refused to commit to pausing operations near games at this summer’s tournament.
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Israeli measures to tighten its control of the West Bank have prompted a global backlash, including a signal from Washington restating the Trump administration’s opposition to annexation of the occupied territory.
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In what would be an upset victory that may carry implications for Democrats nationwide, the progressive activist Analilia Mejia on Tuesday was on the verge of winning a special primary for a US House seat in New Jersey after her main challenger conceded defeat.
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Susan Collins, the Maine Republican senator who is a top target of Democrats in this year’s midterm elections, on Tuesday launched her campaign for a sixth term in office.
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A new Republican House bill proposes sweeping changes to US toxic chemical laws that would gut protections for consumers, workers and the environment, public health advocates mobilising against the legislation warn.
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The US commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, had lunch with Jeffrey Epstein on the disgraced financier’s private island, he said on Tuesday, as he faces mounting calls to resign from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
Catching up? Here’s what happened on 9 February 2026.
