All You Need is Law

This Week in Democracy

• Newly unsealed documents show the FBI investigation that led to last month’s search of a Georgia elections office was referred to the agency by Kurt Olsen, an Election Denier who played a key role in efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Olsen now serves in the Trump administration in a role purportedly focused on election security.

  The documents also show that the FBI pointed to widely debunked claims about the 2020 election when asking a judge to approve the search warrant for the elections office. The documents failed to include important information about earlier investigations conducted by state law enforcement that verified the legitimacy of the election results.

  ➡️ READ: Sharing the Facts About the Trump Administration’s 2020 Election Investigation

• A federal judge in Washington, D.C., temporarily blocked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth from punishing U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly for reminding members of the military and intelligence community that they have an obligation to refuse illegal orders. Kelly, a retired U.S. Navy captain, and other veterans serving in Congress made the statements in a video published late last year.

  In his decision, the judge quoted a brief filed by States United and Protect Democracy in which former military leaders and Vet Voice Foundation argued that Hegseth’s actions, if allowed to stand, “would chill public participation by veterans around the country.”

  ➡️ MORE: About our brief

  A grand jury in Washington this week also refused to criminally indict the members of Congress who appeared in the video, the latest example of federal prosecutors trying and failing to bring charges against President Trump’s political rivals.

  ➡️ READ: How Politicized Prosecutions Undermine the Rule of Law

• A federal judge dismissed the Justice Department’s lawsuit against Michigan officials that sought to force them to hand over voters’ private information. The department has sued 23 other states and Washington, D.C., for similar information. Judges dismissed the cases against California and Oregon last month.

  West Virginia Secretary of State Kris Warner this week also declined the Justice Department’s request for his state’s voters’ information. “West Virginians entrust me with their sensitive personal information,” he said in a statement. “Turning it over to the federal government, which is contrary to state law, will simply not happen.”

  ➡️ READ: Sharing the Facts About Federal Efforts to Compile State Voter Data

• The Trump administration froze more than $1.5 billion in federal funding for four states, including more than $600 million in public health grants. The attorneys general of the affected states sued in response, and a federal judge quickly issued an emergency order blocking the administration from holding up any funding.

  “The president may be playing politics with critical public health funding, including more than $100 million to Illinois, but our residents are the ones who pay the price,” said Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, who led the lawsuit.

  ➡️ READ: Sharing the Facts About Unlawful Attempts to Freeze Federal Funds

• White House Border Czar Tom Homan announced that the Trump administration would end its aggressive immigration enforcement operations in Minnesota.

  In a statement, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison welcomed the news but expressed sorrow for his community. “This unprecedented, unnecessary, and unconstitutional exercise of force leaves much pain in its wake,” he said. “Despite the pain, make no mistake: this is a victory. This is a victory for the rule of law, for the power of clear-headed, creative, lawful resistance, and for the strength of unity over division.”

  Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty, the local prosecutor investigating the killings of two Americans by federal agents, vowed to continue her work after the federal operations end. “This office will be deliberate, and we will not waver,” she said in a statement. “Our community will not forget and nor will we.”

  ➡️ READ: What’s Breaking Through About Federal Law Enforcement Tactics

State of the States

In New York, the Trump administration fired a federal prosecutor appointed by a panel of judges soon after he was sworn in.

The federal judges appointed Donald Kinsella to be the U.S. attorney for the state’s northern district after a judge ruled that the Trump administration’s first appointee, John Sarcone III, was unlawfully serving in the role. The ruling disqualified him from pursuing an investigation into New York Attorney General Letitia James. The Justice Department is appealing that ruling.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi appointed Sarcone and others across the country using unusual legal maneuvers. A federal appeals court called the strategy an attempt to “sidestep” federal law in a ruling disqualifying Alina Habba, one of Trump’s former personal lawyers, from serving as the acting U.S. attorney for New Jersey.

Federal law passed by Congress created a system for federal judges to temporarily appoint U.S. attorneys in the event of a vacancy. Because Sarcone was disqualified and the Trump administration did not submit a new appointee to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, the judges in New York appointed Kinsella to fill the role.

But just hours later, the White House told Kinsella he was fired. According to the Justice Department’s website, Sarcone now serves as the top assistant attorney in the office, leaving him as the highest-ranking prosecutor in the office while the U.S. attorney role is vacant.

In Wisconsin, a county judge ruled that the city of Madison can be held financially liable for failing to count 193 votes in the 2024 elections. States United previously represented Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers in filing a brief in the case.

Evers’ brief addressed an argument made by one of the defendants that the case should be dismissed because absentee voting is a “privilege,” not a right.

“If a voter follows all of the rules when casting a ballot, their vote must count and their constitutional right to vote must be respected,” Evers argued, later adding: “The constitutional right to vote would mean little if close to half of all voters in Wisconsin were deprived of it because they chose to legally cast an absentee ballot.”

The judge rejected the defendant’s argument, citing Evers’ brief.

➡️ MORE: About our brief