Katherine Robertson announces candidacy for Alabama Attorney General
Robertson announced her intentions to run for the position in front of a packed out crowd at Regions Field in Birmingham.
She served as Chief Counsel to Attorney General Steve Marshall for nearly a decade andpreviously worked at the U.S. Department of Justice and as legislative counsel to Senator Jeff Sessions.
Robertson, a state native, grew up in a farming family within Dallas County. She is a graduate of Auburn University and the University of Alabama School of Law.
'Alabama needs a proven fighter who will harness the power of the Attorney General's office to protect our communities and uphold our values,' Robertson said during her announcement speech. 'I believe the first civil right of every Alabamian is to live free from the fear of violence. As Attorney General, I will ensure violent offenders, including those in our countryillegally, do not roam freely, and law enforcement will always know I have their back.'
Former Alabama Supreme Court Justice Jay Mitchell launches campaign for Alabama Attorney General
If elected, Robertson plans to prioritize cracking down on crime by supporting law enforcement, ensuring public safety remains paramount, and passing tougher laws on gangs, child exploitation, and illegal immigration.
'On my watch, the whims of the fanatical left will never make inroads in Alabama,' explained Robertson. 'The woke mob won't be able to tell us a boy can play girls sports, and we will continue to ensure that George Soros never gains a foothold in our criminal justice system.'
Previously, Robertson played a key role in leading national litigation to protect women's sports, reforming Alabama's parole system, passing the Speedy Trial Act, election integrity, and protecting citizens from government overreach.
'You heard AG Marshall say that I am the law enforcement candidate in this race, and I am. This is their race, and they know that I'm their girl.' Robertson stated. ' I'm running because Alabama needs a strong, steadfast Attorney General who knows how to get things done. My record speaks for itself, and I'm ready to do the next right thing—decisively.'
Robertson is also a wife and a mother of two children.
Others who have entered the race for the Alabama Attorney General include Pamela Casey, Blunt County District Attorney and Jay Mitchell, a former Associate Justice for the Alabama Supreme Court.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has also endorsed Robertson for the position.
The next general election for Alabama Attorney General will be held on November 3, 2026.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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a day ago
The Justice Department seeks voter and election information from at least 19 states, AP finds
NEW YORK -- The requests have come in letters, emails and phone calls. The specifics vary, but the target is consistent: The U.S. Department of Justice is ramping up an effort to get voter data and other election information from the states. Over the past three months, the department's voting section has requested copies of voter registration lists from state election administrators in at least 15 states, according to an Associated Press tally. Of those, nine are Democrats, five are Republicans and one is a bipartisan commission. In Colorado, the department demanded 'all records' relating to the 2024 election and any records the state retained from the 2020 election. Department lawyers have contacted officials in at least seven states to propose a meeting about forging an information-sharing agreement related to instances of voting or election fraud. The idea, they say in the emails, is for states to help the department enforce the law. The unusually expansive outreach has raised alarm among some election officials because states have the constitutional authority to run elections and federal law protects the sharing of individual data with the government. It also signals the transformation of the Justice Department's involvement in elections under President Donald Trump. The department historically has focused on protecting access to the ballot box. Today, it is taking steps to crack down on voter fraud and noncitizen voting, both of which are rare but have been the subject of years of false claims from Trump and his allies. The department's actions come alongside a broader effort by the administration to investigate past elections and influence the 2026 midterms. The Republican president has called for a special prosecutor to investigate the 2020 election that he lost to Democrat Joe Biden and continues to falsely claim he won. Trump also has pushed Texas Republicans to redraw their congressional maps to create more House seats favorable to the GOP. The Justice Department does not typically 'engage in fishing expeditions' to find laws that may potentially have been broken and has traditionally been independent from the president, said David Becker, a former department lawyer who leads the nonprofit Center for Election Innovation and Research. 'Now it seems to be operating differently,' he said. The department responded with an emailed 'no comment' to a list of questions submitted by the AP seeking details about the communications with state officials. Election offices in Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, Utah, and Wisconsin confirmed to the AP that they received letters from the voting section requesting their statewide voter registration lists. At least one other, Oklahoma, received the request by phone. Many requests included basic questions about the procedures states use to comply with federal voting laws, such as how states identify and remove duplicate voter registrations or deceased or otherwise ineligible voters. Certain questions were more state-specific and referenced data points or perceived inconsistencies from a recent survey from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, an AP review of several of the letters showed. The Justice Department already has filed suit against the state election board in North Carolina alleging it failed to comply with a part of the federal Help America Vote Act that relates to voter registration records. There are signs the department's outreach isn't done. It told the National Association of Secretaries of State that 'all states would be contacted eventually,' said Maria Benson, a NASS spokeswoman. The organization has asked the department to join a virtual meeting of its elections committee to answer questions about the letters, Benson said. Some officials have raised concerns about how the voter data will be used and protected. Election officials in at least four California counties — Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego and San Francisco —said the Justice Department sent them letters asking for voter roll records. The letters asked for the number of people removed from the rolls for being noncitizens and for their voting records, dates of birth and ID numbers. Officials in Arizona, Connecticut, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Rhode Island and Wisconsin confirmed to the AP that they received an email from two department lawyers requesting a call about a potential 'information-sharing agreement.' The goal, according to several copies of the emails reviewed by the AP, was for states to provide the government with information about instances of election fraud to help the Justice Department 'enforce Federal election laws and protect the integrity of Federal elections.' One of those sending the emails was a senior counsel in the criminal division. The emails referred to Trump's March executive order on elections, part of which directs the attorney general to enter information-sharing agreements with state election officials to the 'maximum extent possible." Election officials in several states that received requests for their voter registration information have not responded. Some said they were reviewing the inquiries. Officials in some other states provided public versions of voter registration lists to the department, with certain personal information such as Social Security numbers blacked out. Elsewhere, state officials answered procedural questions from the Justice Department but refused to provide the voter lists. In Minnesota, the office of Secretary of State Steve Simon, a Democrat, said the federal agency is not legally entitled to the information. In a July 25 letter to the Justice Department's voting section, Simon's general counsel, Justin Erickson, said the list 'contains sensitive personal identifying information on several million individuals.' He said the office had obligations under federal and state law to not disclose any information from the statewide list unless expressly required by law. In a recent letter, Republican lawmakers in the state called on Simon to comply with the federal request as a way "to protect the voting rights of the citizens of Minnesota.' Maine's secretary of state, Democrat Shenna Bellows, said the administration's request overstepped the federal government's bounds and that the state will not fulfill it. She said doing so would violate voter privacy. The department 'doesn't get to know everything about you just because they want to,' Bellows said. There is nothing inherently wrong with the Justice Department requesting information on state procedures or the states providing it, said Justin Levitt, a former deputy assistant attorney general who teaches at Loyola Law School. But the department's requests for voter registration data are more problematic, he said. That is because of the Privacy Act of 1974, which put strict guidelines on data collection by the federal government. The government is required to issue a notice in the Federal Register and notify appropriate congressional committees when it seeks personally identifiable information about individuals. Becker said there is nothing in federal law that compels states to comply with requests for sensitive personal data about their residents. He added that while the outreach about information-sharing agreements was largely innocuous, the involvement of a criminal attorney could be seen as intimidating. 'You can understand how people would be concerned,' he said.


Newsweek
2 days ago
- Newsweek
California Hits Back at Trump's $200M UCLA Grant Freeze: 'Manipulation'
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. California's Governor Gavin Newsom has condemned the Trump administration's suspension of research grants for the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), over alleged antisemitism. The U.S. Department of Justice froze hundreds of millions of dollars in medical and science research grants to UCLA over allegations of campus antisemitism and use of race in admissions. "It is a cruel manipulation to use Jewish students' real concerns about antisemitism on campus as an excuse to cut millions of dollars in grants," Newsom said in a statement. Newsweek has contacted the Justice Department for comment. File photo: Gavin Newsom looks on at Downey Memorial Christian Church in Downey, California, on July 16, 2025. File photo: Gavin Newsom looks on at Downey Memorial Christian Church in Downey, California, on July 16, 2025. Patrick T. Fallon/Getty Images Why It Matters Newsom's comments fuel his confrontation with the Trump administration, the latter seeking to put pressure on universities after student protests on college campuses about the war in Gaza were dubbed antisemitic by some lawmakers and groups. What To Know The U.S. Department of Justice said this week that the UCLA had violated the civil rights of Jewish students during pro-Palestinian protests. The university's Chancellor Julio Frenk said he was told that the federal government, through its control of the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other agencies, was suspending certain research funding to the UCLA. The Department of Health and Human Services, of which NIH is a part, said in a statement that it would "not fund institutions that promote antisemitism." The UCLA had earlier announced it had agreed a $6 million settlement of alleged discrimination brought by Jewish students and a faculty member. The lawsuit accused the university of failing to take action when pro-Palestinian protesters set up encampments on campus in spring 2024. The Los Angeles Times said university leaders had been expecting this moment for months amid federal investigations into alleged use of race in admissions, employment discrimination against Jews, and civil-rights complaints from Jewish students. But Frenk said Thursday that the pausing of funding—whose amount he did not reveal but which Newsom said was around $200 million—was a loss to both researchers and Americans whose health benefits from its work. The LA Times reported that the amount was $300 million. Frenk said that antisemitism "has no place on our campus, nor does any form of discrimination," adding that "we recognize that we can improve." Newsom weighed in with a statement Friday that said that freezing the funding—which would investigate invasive diseases, "cure cancer, and build new defense technologies—makes our country less safe." What People Are Saying California Governor Gavin Newsom said: "Freezing critical research funding for UCLA—dollars that were going to study invasive diseases, cure cancer, and build new defense technologies—makes our country less safe." UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk said in a statement on the freezing of funding: "[It] is not only a loss to the researchers who rely on critical grants. It is a loss for Americans across the nation whose work, health, and future depend on the groundbreaking work we do." What Happens Next The LA Times reported that it is not clear what steps the UCLA might take, but Newsom has said he was "reviewing" the Justice Department's findings.

4 days ago
Colorado deputies disciplined for helping federal immigration agents
DENVER -- Two Colorado deputies have been disciplined for violating state law by helping federal agents make immigration arrests, and their sheriff says officers from other agencies have done the same. One of the deputies, Alexander Zwinck, was sued by Colorado's attorney general last week, after his cooperation with federal immigration agents on a drug task force was revealed following the June arrest of a college student from Brazil with an expired visa. Following an internal investigation, a second Mesa County Sheriff's Office deputy and task force member, Erik Olson, was also found to have shared information. The two deputies used a Signal chat to relay information to federal agents, according to documents released Wednesday by the sheriff's office. Zwinck was placed on three weeks of unpaid leave, and Olson was given two weeks of unpaid leave, Mesa County Sheriff Todd Rowell said in a statement. Both were removed from the task force. Two supervisors also were disciplined. One was suspended without pay for two days, and another received a letter of reprimand. A third supervisor received counseling. The lawsuit and disciplinary actions come as lawmakers in Colorado and other Democratic-led states have crafted legislation intended to push back against President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown. Since Trump took office, pro-immigrant bills have advanced through legislatures in Illinois, Vermont, California, Connecticut and other states. The measures include stronger protections for immigrants in housing, employment and police encounters. Trump has enlisted hundreds of state and local law enforcement agencies to help identify immigrants in the U.S. illegally and detain them for potential deportation. The Republican also relaxed longtime rules restricting immigration enforcement near schools, churches and hospitals. Zwinck was sued under a new state law signed by Gov. Jared Polis about two weeks before the arrest of the student from Brazil. It bars local government employees including law enforcement from sharing identifying information about people with federal immigration officials. Previously, only state agencies were barred from doing that. It's one of a series of laws limiting the state's involvement in immigration enforcement passed over the years that has drawn criticism and a lawsuit from the federal government. The U.S. Department of Justice has also sued Illinois and New York, as well as several cities in those states and New Jersey, alleging their policies violate the U.S. Constitution or federal immigration laws. Zwinck and Olson told officials they thought they were operating according to long-standing procedures. However, the internal investigation found they had both received and read two emails prior to the passage of the new law about previous limits on cooperation with immigration officials. The most recent was sent on Jan. 30, 2025, after an official for Homeland Security Investigations, part of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, had asked state and local law enforcement officers at a law enforcement meeting to contact HSI or ICE if they arrested a person for a violent crime who was believed not to be a citizen, the investigation documents said. The email said not to contact HSI or ICE. Zwinck said he didn't know about the new law and was not interested in immigration enforcement. 'When I was out there, I wanted to find drugs, guns and bad guys," Zwinck said at a July 23 disciplinary hearing. "And sending that information to HSI they provided the ability to give me real time background information on the person I was in contact with,' he said. Olson, who said he had been with the sheriff's office 18 years, testified at his disciplinary hearing that it was 'standard practice' to send information up to federal agents during traffic stops. "It was routine for ICE to show up on the back end of a traffic stop to do their thing,' Olson said. 'I truly thought what we were doing was condoned by our supervision and lawful.' A lawyer at a law firm listed as representing both deputies, Michael Lowe, did not immediately return a telephone call or email seeking comment. Rowell said drug task force members from other law enforcement agencies, including the Colorado State Patrol, also shared information with immigration agents on the Signal chat. The state patrol denied the claim. The sheriff faulted Attorney General Phil Weiser for filing the lawsuit against Zwinck before a local internal investigation was complete. He called on the Democrat, who is running for governor, to drop it. 'As it stands, the lawsuit filed by the Attorney General's Office sends a demoralizing message to law enforcement officers across Colorado — that the law may be wielded selectively and publicly for maximum political effect rather than applied fairly and consistently,' he said. Weiser said last week that he was investigating whether other officers in the chat violated the law. Spokesperson Lawrence Pacheco said Weiser was presented with evidence of a 'blatant violation of state law' and had to act.