Mary Ellen Klas, Columnist

The FBI’s Georgia Ballot Raid Is About 2026, Not 2020

January 31, 2026 at 1:00 PM UTC

Mary Ellen Klas is a politics and policy columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. A former capital bureau chief for the Miami Herald, she has covered politics and government for more than three decades.

This isn’t really about 2020.
Photographer: Mike Stewart/AP Photo

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The FBI raid on the Fulton County elections center outside Atlanta on Wednesday looked to many like the latest attempt by the Trump administration to sow doubt on the 2020 presidential election. In fact, the goal is likely far more nefarious. It looks like a dress rehearsal for taking control of ballots in key states in November — when the Republican Party’s control of Congress will be at stake and the president’s ability to fend off accountability in jeopardy.

The raid no doubt appealed to President Donald Trump’s preoccupation with his defeat in 2020. (He turned to social media late Wednesday and early Thursday to continue to elevate the many conspiracies about it.) But while the FBI raid fed the president’s obsession, it had all the theatrics of a Hollywood thriller and was about as realistic.