BALLOT ISSUE: FBI agents yesterday executed a search warrant at the election center building in Fulton County, Georgia  seeking various records and all “physical ballots from the 2020 general election”  that President Trump has claimed for five years was rigged against him.

  The warrant also sought the seizure of all the scanned ballot images, all voter rolls from that year, and all tabulator tapes. 

  The Justice Department is digging into President Trump’s so far unproven claims of election rigging. The warrant served yesterday came after the administration also filed a civil lawsuit to obtain the election records. The President was up early this morning firing off social media posts, including “TRUMP WON BIG” and “Crooked Election!”

  Georgia State Sen. Josh McLaurin told reporters, “I hope people realize how dangerous this is that the president of the United States is ordering federal agencies to pursue his conspiracy theories.”

  Yesterday’s warrant, which was oddly issued by a federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of Missouri, is the product of  an investigation into possible violations of a federal law against destruction of election-related records, and another statutes that makes it a crime to procure fraudulent voter registration or fraudulent votes.

  Mo Ivory, a Democratic commissioner in Fulton County, said in an Instagram post that “This is an attempt to take your vote away, this is all about November 2026.” 

  The deployment of the Justice Department in this investigation is clearly politicized, not only in Georgia but other states. Attorney General Pam Bondi a few days ago wrote a letter to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz suggesting that the administration would reduce its punishing immigration enforcement operation there if the state turned over its complete and unredacted voter rolls to the DOJ.

THE REGIME:

— President Trump said that a “massive Armada” is on its way to within striking distance of Iran, demanding that they make a deal without saying what deal he wants. He threatened to mount an attack soon “with speed and violence.”

  The aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln and its battle group are on the way. Trump compared the buildup to the forces he amassed off Venezuela late last year ahead of the operation that seized Nicolás Maduro and his wife.

— Secretary of State Marco Rubio told a congressional committee that the government of Venezuela will submit a monthly budget to the Trump administration, which would then release money from an account funded by the country’s US-controlled oil sales. In an unusual arrangement, the money is being held away scrutiny in an account in Qatar, not in the US treasury.

  Rubio assured that the Trump administration had established a “very respectful and productive line of communication” with the government of Delcy Rodríguez, the vice president who succeeded Nicolás Maduro after US forces snatched him from the country.

— The Department of Veterans Affairs has imposed a near-total ban on performing abortions at its medical facilities even in cases of rape and incest, allowing the procedure only in cases in which the mother’s life is at risk.

— President Trump, who has frequently denounced Minnesota’s Somali-born Rep. Ilhan Omar, accused her yesterday of being a fraud and suggested that she had orchestrated the attack on her at a town hall meeting Tuesday night. A man sprayed her with apple cider vinegar.

— The Kennedy Center’s new senior vice president of artistic programming, resigned less than two weeks after he was hired. He gave no explanation. The Kennedy Center in Washington has been hemorrhaging artist appearances since Trump took over the venue established in the memory of President John F. Kennedy.

INFAMY: The football world is in an uproar after former New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick, the winner of six Super Bowls,  was denied entry into the Hall Fame on his first ballot. Belichick’s former star quarterback Tom Brady said, “If he’s not a first-ball Hall of Famer there’s really no coach that should ever be a first-ballot hall of Famer.”

  In addition to his Super Bowl wins, Belichick has the most playoff wins at 21 and the second most total wins, 333. But he’s had his scandals, getting caught sign-stealing and underinflating game balls. Belichick failed to win 40 of 50 votes required to be named to the Hall of Fame and even the people who hate the irascible coach are astounded.

  But columnist Christopher Gasper writes in the Boston Globe, “What proven or perceived cheaters in sports just coast into a Hall of Fame? Ask Roger Clemens or Barry Bonds.”

THE SPIN RACK: A second major winter storm known as a “bomb cyclone” is headed to the East Coast this weekend. It might stay largely offshore. — Average life expectancy hit an all-time high in 2024 as Americans born last year can expect to live until age 79. That’s a six month bump from 2023. —  A man was arrested after driving his car into the doors of the Chabad Lubavitch world headquarters in New York City last night while people were gathered for prayer at the Hasidic Jewish site. The driver told police he was trying to park.

BELOW THE FOLD: The Costco chain’s famous $4.99 roasted chicken is getting roasted again in court. A proposed class action lawsuit claims that the company falsely says the chicken is preservative free while discreetly listing two preservatives on the label.

  “Costco Wholesale Corporation has systemically cheated customers out of tens—if not hundreds—of millions of dollars by falsely advertising its Kirkland Signature Seasoned Rotisserie Chicken as containing ‘no preservatives’,” says the complaint filed in California’s Southern District Court. 

  OK, fine, now finish your dinner and go do your homework.