A legal expert was floored on Thursday after Fulton County, Georgia's lawyers filed a motion to quash President Donald Trump's attempts to keep the voter data his administration recently seized during an FBI raid.
Fulton County's lawyers argued in the court filing that the Trump administration's attempts to conceal evidence from the judge is "arbitrary and capricious," given that the government's case relies on the testimony of the witness. In this case, the government is seeking to limit what an FBI agent testified to under oath when they helped secure the warrant that authorized the raid on Fulton County's election office.
Joyce Vance, a former federal prosecutor, wrote in a new Substack essay that Fulton County's lawyers also put the administration in a tough position with the filing. Instead of arguing that the Trump administration is on a fishing expedition, the lawyers argued that they would respect “relevant privileges” that would prevent the agent from testifying.
"The Trump administration wouldn’t budge," Vance wrote. "That won’t help their credibility with the Judge."
"Trump is in the middle of throwing as much voter suppression spaghetti at the wall as possible, and waiting to see what sticks," she continued. "Everything from the SAVE Act, to trying to get state voter rolls, to supporting outrageous partisan gerrymandering and political spending before the Supreme Court, to directing DOJ’s Civil Division to abandon its traditional role protecting voters’ rights, to wresting control out of the hands of local elected Democrats in places like Fulton County."
'It’s important that we see each of these strategies in the context of the larger approach this administration is taking," Vance continued. "Trump is trying to see what he can get away with so he can put a clumsy thumb on the scale come the midterm elections. He’ll abandon the spaghetti that doesn’t stick and work with whatever he can get away with."