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April 20, 2026

4 entries on this date.

DOJ subpoenaed personal data of ~3,000 Fulton County 2020 election workers to reinvestigate Trump's stolen-election claims

On April 20, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice served a grand-jury subpoena on Fulton County, Georgia's director of elections demanding the names, positions, residential and email addresses, and personal phone numbers of nearly 3,000 people who worked the 2020 election, from county staff to volunteer and temporary poll workers. The demand was part of a DOJ effort to reinvestigate former President Trump's unfounded claims that the 2020 election was stolen. A federal judge later quashed the subpoena, calling its scope "staggering."

FBI Director Kash Patel files $250 million defamation lawsuit against The Atlantic over reporting on alleged drinking and mismanagement

On April 20, 2026, FBI Director Kash Patel filed a $250 million defamation lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against The Atlantic and reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick over her April 17 article describing what witnesses called "bouts of excessive drinking" and unexplained absences and reporting mismanagement at the bureau. Patel had publicly threatened to sue both before publication — telling the magazine "I'll see you in court — bring your checkbook" — and after the story ran. The Atlantic called the suit "meritless" and said it would "vigorously defend" its reporting and journalists.

GEO Group barred Washington state health inspectors from its Tacoma ICE detention center despite an upheld state oversight law

On April 20, 2026, The GEO Group refused to admit Washington State Department of Health inspectors to the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, the latest of repeated denials since the state's oversight law took effect. That 2023 law, upheld by the Ninth Circuit in 2025, authorizes the inspections, which the state pursued after more than 3,500 complaints about conditions including contaminated food, poor sanitation, and inadequate medical care. Washington's governor and attorney general sued in federal court to compel access.

ICE kept Venezuelan woman detained after an immigration judge dismissed her removal case, despite her marriage to a U.S. citizen

On April 20, 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement kept Gabriela Sousa, a Venezuelan woman who entered the United States legally on humanitarian parole in 2023, detained at an immigration facility in the Jacksonville, Florida area after an immigration judge dismissed her removal case. ICE held her while the government weighed whether to use its 30-day window to appeal the dismissal, even though she is married to U.S. citizen Brandon Garrison and had a spousal petition pending since November 2025. She had been held for roughly six months following an October 2025 domestic-dispute arrest that produced no criminal charges.