Election Denying ‘Stop the Steal’ Lawyer-Turned-White House Employee Behind Fulton County FBI Raid
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An election denier and lawyer who was involved in lawsuits brought by Trump allies related to the 2020 election, worked closely with conspiracy theorists like Mike Lindell and Kari Lake and who spoke to Trump multiple times on Jan. 6, 2021 is at the center of the FBI’s criminal investigation into the 2020 election results in Fulton County, Georgia.
“The FBI criminal investigation originated from a referral sent by Kurt Olsen, Presidentially appointed Director of Election Security and Integrity,” the FBI search warrant affidavit for the Fulton County raid that took place last month said. The affidavit was unsealed on Tuesday and shows that the investigation not only originated with Olsen, but also was based on thoroughly debunked claims about ballots in Fulton County in 2020 that Olsen has helped perpetuate. Olsen was hired to work for the White House for 130 days as a special government employee, the Wall Street Journal first reported in October, suggesting he may be near the end of his run.
Since his involvement in efforts to overturn the 2020 election, Olsen has continued to push false claims about that year’s results. Now, from his temporary position in the Trump White House, he is reportedly leading an investigation into those same claims. President Trump has reportedly directed the nation’s top spy agencies to share “sensitive intelligence about the 2020 election” with Olsen as part of that new role, according to new reporting from Politico Monday.
FBI agents searched the Fulton County election hub last month and seized a slew of materials related to the 2020 election, including ballots, ballot images, voting machine tabulator tapes and voter registration information for the 2020 election. Fulton County has long been a hotbed for conspiracy theories related to President Trump’s 2020 loss to President Joe Biden. Many of the claims outlined in the affidavit reference those various conspiracy theories, like claims of missing ballot images in Fulton County or duplicates of absentee ballots.
In court filings last week, Fulton County officials argued that the affidavit should be unsealed, noting copious previous investigations into claims about the ballot counting there haven’t turned up any issues that effected the election outcome. From the County’s petition:
At least eleven different lawsuits failed to prove any fraud, irregularities, or procedural deficiencies sufficient to impact Georgia’s presidential election. The continued perpetuation of these unfounded allegations sows distrust around both judicial and electoral processes in Fulton County and the state of Georgia. Transparency is necessary to ensure public knowledge and confidence.
So Why Was Tulsi Gabbard There?
Congressional Democrats have been sounding the alarm about Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s presence at the FBI raid since it went down.
The White House, President Trump and Gabbard herself have all offered different explanations for Gabbard’s presence at the scene of the FBI raid of Fulton County last month. The day after the raid, she reportedly helped facilitate a phone call between Trump and the agents who seized the materials there. Gabbard has claimed that Trump asked her to be at the scene. The White House has said that the raid was part of a larger investigation being conducted by Gabbard and FBI Director Kash Patel. Trump claimed that Gabbard was there at the direction of Attorney General Pam Bondi. Gabbard’s spokesperson said she had been asked to be there by both Bondi and the president.
In light of today’s news about Olsen’s involvement in the search and seizure and the fact that there was no foreign intelligence claims outlined in the unsealed affidavit, Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), the vice chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, is asking the question again: “So why was the Director of National Intelligence there?” He writes:
“The newly unsealed affidavit shows this search originated from the frivolous claims of Kurt Olsen, an attorney who traffics in debunked falsehoods about the 2020 election. It also makes clear there was no foreign intelligence nexus.
“So why was the Director of National Intelligence there?
“When the nation’s top intelligence official inserts herself into a matter with no connection to a foreign threat, it’s hard to escape the conclusion that the objective was political — namely, getting back into Donald Trump’s good graces — and that her presence was meant to lay the groundwork for baseless claims of foreign interference. Americans should be deeply concerned about what someone with sweeping authority over the country’s intelligence apparatus might do to achieve that.”
Lutnick Confirms Lunch With Epstein
After his name was mentioned a handful of times in recent documents released by the Justice Department related to its investigations into Jeffrey Epstein, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick acknowledged on Tuesday that he did, in fact, have lunch with Esptein even after he was originally convicted of sex crimes.
During a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on Tuesday, Lutnick said he met Epstein for the first time when he moved to a home next door to Epstein in New York.
“I met him then,” Lutnick told lawmakers Tuesday. “Over the next 14 years, I met him two other times that I can recall — two times.”
He confirmed he had lunch on Epstein’s private island in 2012. Lutnick has not been accused of any wrongdoing related to the convicted sex offender, but he has been criticized for not being publicly forthcoming about how long he knew Epstein. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) criticized Lutnick for his ties to Epstein during the hearing, which was focused on funding for broadband.
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