A.M. ATL: The FBI arrives

Morning, y’all! It’s Thursday. Way back in the day, I worked on HLN’s “Morning Express with Robin Meade.” (She’s an incredible woman.) As she said every week, “Thursday is connected to Friday!”

Let’s get to it.

FBI RAIDS FULTON COUNTY ELECTION OFFICE

FBI agents enter the Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center in Union City on Wednesday.

FBI agents descended on Fulton County’s election operations to seize materials related to President Donald Trump’s ongoing false claims that Georgia’s 2020 presidential election results were rigged.

Here’s what investigators were seeking, according to the search warrant:

• Physical ballots from the 2020 election, including all in-person, absentee and other ballots and absentee ballot envelopes
• Tabulator tapes for every voting machine used in Fulton County
• All ballot images produced during the original ballot count (not the several following counts that also turned up negligible inconsistencies and upheld the election’s initial results)
• All voter rolls from the 2020 general election in Fulton County from absentee, early voting, in-person and any other voter roll

🔎 READ MORE: A timeline of the fight over Georgia election results, from 2020 to now

Let’s be clear here: The 2020 election was not stolen from Trump. That’s not a partisan line; it’s fact. Multiple state and federal investigations confirmed that. Trump’s own officials confirmed that.

The current administration and Georgia’s own Republican-led state elections board have tried several tactics to get their hands on 2020 voter material and obtain detailed Georgia voter information.

🔎 READ MORE: The latest on the raid and what local leaders are saying

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THE TRUTH ABOUT ICE ARRESTS IN GEORGIA

Through the first nine months of the second Trump administration, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement recorded more than 8,500 confirmed arrests in Georgia.

• Fewer than a third of those arrested were convicted criminals, and 112 have been children.
• AJC reporters analyzed an immigration arrest dataset obtained from the federal government through a lawsuit by the Deportation Data Project to get these figures.
• Georgia is the fourth-most prolific state for ICE arrests. Texas has seen the most, followed by Florida and California.

🔎 READ MORE: Data also shows fewer convicted criminals captured over time

More immigration news

Ossoff investigation finds human rights abuses

• The office of U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff says it has identified more than 1,000 credible reports of human rights abuses inside immigration detention facilities across the country since Trump took office.
• The report alleges medical neglect, physical and sexual abuse, denial of adequate food and water, the separation of families and the mistreatment of children and pregnant women.
• Multiple detainees told Ossoff’s investigators officials threatened to take their children away if they refused to voluntarily self-deport. One woman gave birth in custody and was separated from her newborn for several months.

ICE opens new office in College Park

The satellite field office will accommodate more administrative officers and will likely play a supporting role to ICE’s existing Atlanta field office. An ICE spokesperson did not say where the office will be located or how many officers it will accommodate.

MUST-KNOW POLITICS AND BUSINESS

🔧 Home Depot says it will cut 800 corporate jobs and require corporate workers to return to the office five days a week. It’s 2026, and we’re still doing RTO pushes?

🏛️ At 21, Akbar Ali is Georgia’s youngest state legislator. He won a runoff special election last month for a Gwinnett state House seat. He talked to the AJC about his legislative priorities, and how growing up the eldest sibling in an immigrant household prepared him for leadership.

NEW PLAN TO ELIMINATE GA PROPERTY TAXES

State GOP lawmakers are already looking at ways to eliminate state income tax in the next few years. Now, House Speaker Jon Burns has added property tax to the mix.

• His plan would phase out taxes on “homestead” properties by 2032. Multifamily and commercial properties would still pay taxes, but property tax growth would be capped.
• Obvious obstacle: That would eliminate an estimated $5 billion or more a year for schools and local governments.
• Instead, Burns’ plan would allow schools and municipal services to repurpose existing sales taxes or charge “assessments” — charges not based on the value of the homes.
• An AJC survey last fall found a majority of likely Democratic and Republican voters, if they had to pick one, prefer property tax relief over eliminating the income tax.

NEWS BITES

A piece of Coca-Cola’s Atlanta history now could have a new chapter

Victorian architecture + century‑old Coke syrup = at least a 70% chance the house is haunted, scientifically speaking.

The AJC’s Mike Jordan: ‘Here’s what I’ve learned from eating a salad every day since August'

This explains a lot about Mike’s verdant office lunch choices. (He’s also a tea man!)

Takeaways from Kevin Stefanski’s first news conference as Falcons head coach

It was basically a Rorschach test for how you feel about the Falcons right now.

Gay hockey romance show ‘Heated Rivalry’ a big hit in Russia despite anti-LGBTQ+ laws

The angst of two sweaty men pining for each other transcends culture.

ON THIS DATE

Jan. 29, 1985

Smoking snuffed at newspaper

First they did away with manual typewriters, replacing them with expensive computers that don’t clack and reel. Then reporters started dressing well, forsaking mismatched clothes and loosened ties for tweed jackets and three-piece suits. And now, at the Newport Daily News, smoking has been banned.

Drinking while driving legal in 26 states, safety council finds

If a traveler were driving from Key West, Fla., to the Idaho-Canadian border, he could pick a reasonably direct route that would allow him to drink non-stop for 3,700 miles.