ATLANTA — When President Donald Trump delivered his primetime address about election fraud Thursday, Dana Barrett was watching and ready to take notes.
But Barrett, a Fulton County commissioner, did not hear much worth writing down.
The Democratic commissioner represents a county that Trump has repeatedly blamed for his 2020 election loss.
Last winter, the FBI raided the Fulton election warehouse and seized ballots.
Then, in early July, came reports that the FBI had plans to “surge” 260 analysts and specialists to Fulton for what a government memo described as a “priority” investigation.
The memo gave the analysts until July 17 to check 708 records, the Associated Press reported after obtaining a copy.
So, Barrett figured Trump’s decision to schedule his speech on July 16 must have been related to that deadline and that he would be revealing big news about Fulton.
Then, Trump went live with his speech — and he did not mention the county.
Barrett said that was a telling omission. “There was really nothing that Trump said in that speech that was significant,” she added.
Along with Trump’s speech came his declassification of documents related to investigations of election meddling. Despite the president’s past claims that Georgia had been a hotbed of voter fraud, the Peach State was mentioned only a handful of times in those 58 documents, which the public can download from the White House website.
None of those references contained clear evidence of fraud.
One document points to a 2017 television news report about an FBI investigation of a data breach at Kennesaw State University while the university was involved in maintaining the state’s voter registration database.
Another refers to a 2021 federal lawsuit against Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger that included a report from an expert who said barcodes, like the QR codes used by Georgia’s voting machines, were vulnerable to hackers.
Many of the declassified documents were heavily redacted, including one that mentions Georgia and other states along with the government of China. So much of that document is blacked out that it is not possible to summarize its contents, but it mentions the personal information of millions of Americans in voter registration databases. Other documents say China vacuumed up such information, much or all of it publicly available.
Finally, one of the documents notes that Trump alerted leaders in 15 states, Georgia among them, that their voter registration rolls had been “compromised” by China.
Yet, a 2020 memo by the National Intelligence Council says the country’s elections would be difficult to undermine.
The newly declassified document says voting locations are not connected to the internet or to each other, so they can only be manipulated in person. It could still be done in enough states to influence a presidential election, the memo says, but it would be difficult and, the authors concluded, “postelection audits and paper trails very likely would uncover such an effort.”
That memo, which says vote tabulation systems in the United States “would be difficult to manipulate on a wide enough scale to compromise election results,” was written during Trump’s first term.
Another declassified memo also mentions Georgia. It offers a narrative seemingly at odds with the president’s claims that the state runs unreliable elections.
Trump has been unsparing in his criticism of Raffensperger, who oversaw the 2020 election when Trump lost, as well as the 2024 election when he won.
More than a quarter million noncitizens are illegally registered to vote in four states, the new Department of Homeland Security memo says. But as of late June, it says, 10 states had “conscientious” leaders who had successfully used the agency’s services to scour their rolls for such noncitizen voters.
Georgia is listed among these “proactive” states.
This document was among the declassified election-related reports released by the White House in connection with President Donald Trump’s July 16, 2026 speech.
ATLANTA — Argentina or Spain will win the World Cup Sunday, but MARTA is already celebrating a win, announcing Friday that it moved 4.7 million riders during the 35 days of events in metro Atlanta, with no major crimes reported.
The transit agency came into the FIFA World Cup amid a federal investigation, after a woman was stabbed to death on a train and another was stabbed in a separate incident.
The violence prompted U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy to order an investigation by the Federal Transit Administration in early June.
MARTA Interim General Manager and CEO Jonathan J. Hunt responded to the federal inquiry by describing a host of improvements since he took over last August.
In a June 17 letter to the federal agency, Hunt wrote that the MARTA crime rate fell 25% from 2024 to 2025, with aggravated assaults down 27% and robberies down 35%.
MARTA had 230 police officers when he took over, and it had 268 by the time he sent the letter.
And the fiscal year 2026 forecast for police expenditures at the agency were nearly $58.7 million, up 22% from the prior fiscal year.
“Our increased law enforcement actions are having a positive impact,” Hunt wrote.
But he also acknowledged a core challenge: “While MARTA has positive and improving crime statistics, we realize that if our customers don’t perceive the system to be safe they will not ride.”
Most of the money comes from local sales taxes, though the federal government gave MARTA nearly $11 million in grants for safety and operations preparation ahead of the World Cup, Hunt said in a letter to Georgia lawmakers last month.
The agency seized on the increased ridership during the World Cup as a promising sign.
The busiest day was the match between Morocco and Haiti on June 24, with 240,000 daily riders, which was 2.6 times the normal count. The next busiest day was when England played the Democratic Republic of Congo, with 230,000 riders, 2.5 times normal.
Though no major crimes were reported, three suspects in prior violent incidents were apprehended, the agency said, as hundreds of MARTA officers worked nearly around the clock, with help from transit police from Denver and other jurisdictions.
Six hundred MARTA ambassadors and 100 multilingual FIFA volunteers also pitched in, as the agency gave directions, water, sunscreen and first aid to fans.
In a statement Friday, Hunt thanked the officers and workers.
He also thanked the public “for trusting” MARTA to whisk them to matches, watch parties, on errands and to work, adding, “We hope you’ll continue to let MARTA drive.”
ATLANTA — People spent more money on the Georgia Lottery over the past year than the prior one, sending more than $1 billion to public educational programs for the 11th year in a row.
The more than $1.5 billion raised during fiscal year 2026, which ended June 30, exceeded the prior fiscal year profit by nearly $70 million, according to Gov. Brian Kemp’s office.
Since 1993, the Georgia Lottery Corp. has given financial aid to more than 2.3 million college students through the HOPE Scholarship Program. It also has paid for 4-year-olds to attend pre-kindergarten, with more than 2.2 million having participated in the voluntary program.
The ongoing strength in lottery sales led the state to restore scholarship amounts to fully cover tuition at Georgia public colleges and universities.
That, along with the removal of the higher education institutional fee, will keep education accessible and affordable, Kemp said in a statement.
Georgia Lottery President and CEO Gretchen Corbin said fiscal year 2026 was “an exceptionally strong” one.
It was also a big year for whoever bought a winning Mega Millions ticket in Newnan in November. In January, that person claimed the largest lottery prize in history — $983 million.
ATLANTA — President Donald Trump plans to visit Georgia next week to highlight tax breaks, grants to newborns and other policies aimed at affordability, a top concern ahead of the November elections.
The president is scheduled to visit Wheeler High School in Marietta on Wednesday.
“As the most pro-family president in our nation’s history, President Trump is giving every American child a head start in life, a nest egg to grow up with, and a real stake in their own future through Trump Accounts,” Liz Huston, a White House spokeswoman, said in an email to Capitol Beat when asked about the purpose of his visit.
She was referring to the tax-advantaged accounts for U.S. minors that were established by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act last year.
Citizens born between Jan. 1, 2025, and Dec. 31, 2028 also are eligible to receive a $1,000 contribution to their accounts, which their parents manage until age 18.
Trump also is expected to highlight the Working Families Tax Cuts, which increased average federal tax refunds.
ATLANTA — A soldier based at Fort Benning has been charged along with his wife in connection with the death by starvation of their son and one of their dogs.
A federal grand jury indicted Emma Bradshaw, 22, of Carson City, Nevada, and Ladarrion McCray, 23, of Valdosta, on eight counts, including felony murder by child abuse, on Wednesday, U.S. Attorney William R. “Will” Keyes said in a statement.
Other charges include child abuse, false statements and animal cruelty, according to the statement from the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Middle District of Georgia.
Each faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Bradshaw was pregnant when the couple arrived at Fort Benning, where McCray was stationed, the statement said. It did not say when they arrived and did not release the age of their child.
The indictment said their boy was starved starting Jan. 14 and that he died Jan. 28, Keyes’ office said. When Army investigators searched the home that day, they found the remains of the couple’s female dachshund in a trash barrel outside with the household garbage, prosecutors said.
The couple told the Army Criminal Investigation Division that they had buried the dog in a park off base after it died from illness, Keyes’ office said, adding that a necropsy determined the pet had died of starvation.
Two other dogs, a hound and a Doberman pinscher, were severely malnourished, the statement said, adding that the couple had failed to provide adequate food, water, sanitary conditions or ventilation.
The Army initiated discharge proceedings for McCray.
