Raw Story

New York Times columnist David French recently outlined a strategy that could prevent President Donald Trump from undermining the midterm elections.

In recent columns, French has sounded the alarm about "all of Trump's threats against American elections."

"Trump has filled his administration with cronies and true believers, and his attorney general is one of his chief enforcers. In 2020 Bill Barr, who was then the attorney general, resigned rather than continue to pursue Trump's stolen election claims," he noted on Sunday.

Writing on Thursday, French proposed pushing through the so-called Bivens Act, supported by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Reps. Hank Johnson (D-GA) and Jamie Raskin (D-MA). If signed into law by the president, the legislation would remove federal officials' immunity from lawsuits.

"It would amend Section 1983 by stating that officials 'of the United States' can be held liable on the same basis as officials of any state," French wrote. "That's it. That's the bill. And it's worth shutting down the Department of Homeland Security to get it passed."

The law would also apply to violations of voting rights.

"In my law practice, I saw fear of liability deter many constitutional violations. College presidents have removed speech codes. Police departments have changed policies. And not because of criminal prosecution, but from fear of substantial monetary judgments or injunctions from the courts," French explained. "I'm aware that it will be difficult to get Republicans to agree to greater legal accountability when they control the executive branch, when Republicans would be most likely to be held accountable, at least in the short term. And they would have to do so in force here to get past a potential presidential veto."

"But the Bivens Act would also hold Democrats accountable when they're back in power," he added. "It would give Republicans tools to restrain Democratic excess. The Bivens Act protects the Constitution. It does not punish any particular political party."

"Yes, a corrupt president may pardon the crooks and cronies who act on his behalf, but a modest change in the law could give them pause. Violating civil rights should carry a profound cost, and the message to the Trump administration should be simple and clear: Protect the integrity of the election, or we will make you pay."

New polling reveals that most Americans doubt President Donald Trump’s commitment to free and fair elections, with just 43% believing he supports democratic processes and 56% saying he does not. CNN analyst Harry Enten noted independents are even more skeptical, with only a third trusting Trump on election integrity. The findings come after Trump suggested Republicans should nationalize elections in 15 states and amid his ongoing legal battles over the 2020 election, reinforcing widespread voter mistrust in his dedication to democracy.

Watch the video below.

Poll shows majority of Americans don’t trust Trump to support free and fair elections Poll shows majority of Americans don’t trust Trump to support free and fair elections

A newly released tranche of Justice Department records tied to Jeffrey Epstein includes an unverified allegation that names conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, according to documents disclosed Friday. The claim, sent by email to federal prosecutors in New York and two federal judges, was discussed internally last August but offers no evidence and has not resulted in any charges or investigation involving Thomas. The accuser, who claimed to be an Epstein victim, alleged she was raped by mobster Johnny Martorano and further alleged — without corroboration — that Martorano referenced Thomas and that Thomas sexually assaulted her as a child. Federal prosecutors acknowledged the complaint internally as part of standard protocol, underscoring that the sprawling Epstein file release contains numerous raw, unsubstantiated claims that do not establish wrongdoing.

Watch the video below.

DOJ Epstein files surface unverified allegation naming Justice Clarence Thomas DOJ Epstein files surface unverified allegation naming Justice Clarence Thomas

If you thought that President Donald Trump and Georgia Republican candidates for higher office have left the 2020 election in the rearview mirror, think again.

Federal agents on Wednesday were seen seizing records from Fulton County’s election center warehouse as the president continues echoing false claims surrounding his 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Justice Department have not provided a reason for the raid, but a U.S. magistrate judge signed off on a warrant allowing agents to access a trove of information from ballots to voter rolls.

It doesn’t appear that county or state officials had advanced notice of Wednesday’s raid at the 600,000-square-foot facility in Union City, which is used as a polling place, a site for county election board meetings and a storage facility for ballots and information about Fulton voters.

Concerns about election security are not new in Georgia’s most populous county, which includes Atlanta and routinely gives overwhelming support to Democratic presidential and statewide candidates. But this week’s raid is a major escalation in a years-long battle over election integrity — one that appears to be emerging as more of a political litmus test.

“This is a blatant attempt to distract from the Trump-authorized state violence that killed multiple Americans in Minnesota,” said Democrat Dana Barrett, a Fulton County commissioner who is also running for Secretary of State.

“Sending 25 FBI agents to raid our Fulton County elections office is political theater and part of a concerted effort to take over elections in swing districts across the country.”

The raid comes as the 2026 Republican primary for governor, which features many of the same Republicans who sparred over that year’s election results, is starting to heat up. Both Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Attorney General Chris Carr have repeatedly vouched for Georgia’s 2020 tally and refused to join any attempts to subvert it, putting them on a collision course with MAGA world over their loyalty to President Donald Trump as they campaign for the state’s top job.

Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who is running with the president’s endorsement, praised Wednesday’s raid and offered us a preview of what we will likely soon see in his doom-and-gloom campaign commercials.

“Fulton County Elections couldn’t run a bake sale,” Jones said on social media Wednesday. “And unfortunately, our Secretary of State hasn’t fixed the corruption and our Attorney General hasn’t prosecuted it.”

In the months and weeks leading up to the November 2020 vote, Trump’s repeated warnings of potential nefarious activity in that year’s election became part of his rhetoric. Georgia would emerge as the epicenter of the president’s claims of election fraud, even after multiple hand recounts and lawsuits confirmed Biden’s ultimate victory.

His allies in the state Legislature urged leaders to call a special session to reallocate Georgia’s 16 electoral votes. Some Republicans, including Jones, signed a certificate designating themselves as the “electors” who officially vote for president and vice president. And Trump’s January 2021 phone call to Raffensperger, where he urged the secretary to “find” enough votes to erase his defeat, was at the heart of Fulton County’s election racketeering case against Trump and his allies.

The case was dismissed late last year.

Nevertheless, Trump’s claims of fraud have become a key pillar in his party’s political identity: More than half of Republicans in Congress still objected to the certification of Trump’s defeat in the hours following the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. A 2024 national poll from the University of Massachusetts Amherst found that roughly three in ten voters still had questions about the validity of Biden’s win three years prior, a glaring sign of just how mainstream that belief has become among the general public.

Six years later, Trump’s return to the White House hasn’t helped him move on. He continues to say in remarks and at campaign events that he carried the Peach State “three times.” His now-infamous Fulton County mugshot hangs right outside the Oval Office. And he warned of prosecutions against election officials during a speech in Davos this month.

“[Russia’s war with Ukraine] should have never started and it wouldn’t have started if the 2020 U.S. presidential election weren’t rigged. It was a rigged election,” Trump said. “Everybody now knows that. They found out. People will soon be prosecuted for what they did. That’s probably breaking news.”

It’s clear that the past is still very much shaping the present in Georgia Republican politics. This week’s federal raid on the Fulton elections center just adds more fuel to old grudge matches, and a politician’s role in the 2020 election could ultimately determine their political standing.

For candidates like Carr and Raffensperger, the primary could be a test of whether or not there is a political price to pay for defending Georgia’s election results against the barrage of attacks and conspiracy theories. And for Jones, it’s a test of whether election denialism is still an effective political attack for MAGA-aligned candidates to use.

• Niles Francis recently graduated from Georgia Southern University with a degree in political science and journalism. He has spent the last few years observing and writing about the political maneuvering at Georgia’s state Capitol and regularly publishes updates in a Substack newsletter called Peach State Politics. He is currently studying to earn a graduate degree and is eager to cover another exciting political year in the battleground state where he was born and raised.

President Donald Trump used Sen. Elizabeth Warren's (D-MA) tribute to Alex Pretti in an attempt to smear the slain 37-year-old nurse.

In a Truth Social post on Thursday, Trump shared a video of what was thought to be Pretti getting into an altercation with DHS agents days before his death.

"Caring for people was at the core of who he was," Warren says in the video. "He was incapable of causing harm. Alex carried patience, compassion, and calm as a steady light within him."

As Warren speaks, Pretti appears engaged in a scuffle with law enforcement days before he was killed.

"Even at the very end, that light was there. I recognized his familiar stillness and signature calm composure," the senator notes.

Trump also shared remarks from one of his fans, calling the video "The Story of Alex Pretti."

Asked about Pretti earlier this week, Trump replied, "I love everybody. I love all of our people. I love his family. And it's a very sad situation."

Melania Trump's eponymous documentary flopped in its London debut.

UK cinema chain Vue's will premier "Melania" at 3:10 p.m. at its flagship Islington theater in London, but so far only one person has bought a ticket and just two tickets have sold for a 6 p.m. showing – undercutting President Donald Trump's hype claims, reported LBC.

"MELANIA, the Movie, is a MUST WATCH," Trump posted Tuesday on Truth Social. "Get your tickets today — Selling out, FAST!"

In truth, according to Vue chief executive Tim Richards, UK ticket sales are "soft," and the film – for which Amazon MGM Studios paid a reported $40 million – is projected to make just $5 million during its opening weekend, and trade publication Boxoffice Pro projects less than half that haul.

"I’d be amazed if box office gets reported on this title," one industry insider told The Mirror, adding that the film’s distributors might be paying a fee to cinemas to screen the movie, an established practice known as “four-walling.”

Documentary filmmaker Stefano Da Frè, who was not involved in the film, told CNN that "data-driven" Amazon would not have invested that much expecting to lose money.

“With all their tools, all their AI, Amazon Web Services — they didn’t just come up with that number randomly,” Da Frè said. “They believe, through their metrics, that it’s worth that amount.”

A studio spokesperson backed that assertion and disputed that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos had sunk that much money on a "vanity project" for the president's wife.

“We licensed the film for one reason and one reason only — because we think customers are going to love it," the Amazon MGM Studios spokesperson said.

"Melania" will open in 1,400 theaters Friday in the U.S. and in more than 27 other countries, and Amazon spent a reported $35 million on marketing the documentary, and social media posts have suggested that many theaters will be empty as the film rolls.