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Feb. 3 (UPI) — U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Monday said she attended an FBI search of election offices in Georgia last week at the request of President Donald Trump, defending her and the Trump administration’s role in the law enforcement action against mounting Democratic criticism.

Gabbard has come under growing scrutiny since photographs surfaced showing her with FBI agents executing a search warrant at the Fulton County elections hub, where authorities seized documents related to the 2020 election.

Democratic concerns about alleged Trump administration efforts to undermine the upcoming midterm elections have been stoked by Gabbard’s unprecedented involvement in the raid at Fulton County, prompting House and Senate Democrats on their respective intelligence committees to demand she explain her role.

In a Monday letter addressed to Rep. James Himes, D-Conn., the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, and Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Gabbard said she accompanied FBI personnel “for a brief time” while they executed the search warrant.

“My presence was requested by the President and executed under my broad statutory authority to coordinate, integrate and analyze intelligence related to election security, including counterintelligence, foreign and other malign influence and cybersecurity,” she said.

“ODNI’s Office of General Counsel has found my actions to be consistent and well within my statutory authorities as the Director of National Intelligence.”

In the letter, she told the Democrats that her office “will not irresponsibly share incomplete intelligence assessments,” but she would share them with Congress once they are completed.

Fulton County was the focal point of Trump’s unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election, which he lost to President Joe Biden. Trump and 18 others were later charged in Georgia for their alleged efforts to overturn the state’s results, a racketeering case that was dropped late last year following Trump’s return to the White House.

The letter came as The New York Times reported Monday that a day after the Wednesday raid, Gabbard arranged a phone call between the involved FBI agents and Trump.

“Tulsi Gabbard has no legal role in domestic law enforcement, yet 5 days ago she participated in an FBI raid of Fulton County, Georgia’s election office — the center of Trump’s 2020 election conspiracy theories,” Warner said on X on Monday.

“And now we find out that she orchestrated a call between Trump and the FBI agents conducting the raid? Something’s not passing the smell test…”

Gabbard confirmed the call in her letter Monday, stating: “While visiting the FBI File Office in Atlanta, I thanked the FBI agents for their professionalism and great work, and facilitated a brief phone call for the President to thank the agents personally for their work.”

“He did not ask any questions, nor did he or I issue any directive,” she added.

Open sandwiches (smørrebrød), meatballs (frikadeller), crispy pork belly (stegt flæsk) … There are many must-eat dishes for food lovers visiting Denmark, though perhaps nothing springs to mind as readily as the Danish pastry. But how are you supposed to choose from the countless bakeries on offer? And once you have decided which to visit, which pastry to eat? As a long-term resident of Copenhagen and pastry obsessive, I took on the Guardian’s challenge to find the best Danish pastry in town.

Let’s get started with the shocking fact that Danish pastries are not actually Danish. In Denmark they’re called wienerbrød (Viennese bread) and made using a laminated dough technique that originated in Vienna. There’s also no such thing as a “Danish” in Denmark – there are so many different types of pastry that the word loses meaning. What we know as a Danish is a spandauer – a round pastry with a folded border and a circle of yellowy custard in the middle. Then there’s the tebirkes, a folded pastry often with a baked marzipan-style centre and poppy seeds on the top; a frøsnapper, a twist of pastry dusted with poppy seeds; and a snegl, which translates as “snail” but is known as a cinnamon swirl in English.

I decided to compare bakeries based on their snegl – partly because they are my favourite but mainly because you can find one just about everywhere. I’m also clear on what constitutes a good one: it should have a crisp outer circle and a squidgier middle, which Danes regard as the best bit, and should taste of cinnamon and sugar.

With a steady stream of often international pastry chefs leaving the city’s high-end restaurants to open their own bakeries, new outlets are popping up nearly every day. There’s a low-key fight going on between old and new, but in this Instagram age it’s not a fair one. While the more traditional bakeries are marked out by the golden kringle, a sign like a pretzel, hanging outside their shops, the boutique-style bakeries have nearly always got better lighting and more vibrant displays.

For me, it’s a classic story of modernisation and renewal: some adaptations may go too far, but others make traditional pastry taste even better, so why not? I explored both types: the traditional bakeries imbued with hygge and historic charm, and the chic, patisserie-style places. Try them both – it’s fun!

Famous for its “Wednesday snegl”, Sankt Peders is the oldest bakery in the city, dating back to 1652, and it looks the part: on a cobbled Old Town street, it has a golden kringle hanging outside, and the scent of cinnamon perfumes the air. I ask for their classic pastry and am handed a cinnamon snegl. It’s round, rather flat, and decorated with a splodge of white icing. I bite into its crisp outer edges and find a soft inner section. It’s good, but the lack of height – along with the teeth-achingly sweet icing – means it won’t be in contention for a top spot.
30 kroner (£3.50), 5/10

Hipster vibes abound at Brød, a small modern bakery on Enghave Plads in the vibrant Vesterbro district. Babies are sleeping in prams outside and a man wearing a teeny-weeny beanie pulls up on a cargo bike as I arrive. The young baker serving me is very proud of Denmark’s pastry expertise and advises me to try a snegl, a spandauer and a tebirkes to get a fully rounded idea of what they do. How can I say no? The spandauer and tebirkes are good, not too sweet, but I’m a particular fan of the tall cinnamon swirl and its deliciously squidgy middle.
30 kroner, 7.5/10

This has been consistently rated one of the best bakeries in the city since it was opened by the Swedish baker and ex-Noma pastry chef Emil Glaser in the Østerbro district in 2017. I drop in to try their classic cardamom bun, but there’s nowhere to sit so I take it to work. It’s beautiful to look at, delicately plaited and dusted with sugar and black flecks of cardamom. It’s sweet, slightly chewy and very moreish. At this point I think I should be more like Prue and Paul on Bake Off and just eat a morsel of each pastry to avoid the ensuing sugar crash that will derail my day. But I find I can’t stop myself.
34 kroner, 9/10

Before I tell you to shell out for one of the city’s more expensive pastries, I have a responsibility to make sure cheaper versions are represented here. So I visit a local supermarket, Discount 365, and buy a thin, flat and cold snegl from the bakery cabinet, topped with a circle of white icing. It’s crisply crunchy nearly all the way through and lacks a soft middle. There’s not much in the way of cinnamon taste and there’s absolutely no lingering flavour, except for maybe margarine. Pay more: you’ll thank me. 12 kroner, 1/10

They are still rolling up the shutters of the Torvehallerne food hall when I arrive, but a decent queue is already forming at Albatross & Venner. I count 10 different types of pastry as I wait: next to fat cinnamon swirls, there are chia swirls, feta and spinach swirls and other savoury options. I opt for a cinnamon snegl, which they make with coffee syrup. The thick, uneven rolls are a little clumsy, but it’s glazed, soft and delicious. There’s no real definition between the outside and the inside so it’s not in the elite league. But it is hearty.
35 kroner, 6.5/10

Although I’m a big fan of independents, it would be remiss to not mention the city’s bakery chains. Lagkagehuset is a classic, with a modern concrete and marble interior, and reliable options from a counter that offers everything from great sandwiches to glossy cakes and quintessential pastries. Bakery snobs despair at their mass-produced goods but I remain a fan. I plump for a direktørsnegl, a big chocolate-topped cinnamon swirl, which is messy with an oozy centre. If you don’t love really sweet things you may find it too sickly – but that’s not how I roll. 27 kroner, 8/10

Run by Italian chef Chiara Barla, this neighbourhood bakery near Nørreport has a chic minimalist interior and is known in Copenhagen for serving the best tebirkes in the world. I watch the bakers roll out and shape pale dough behind the counter as I try their pastries. After weeks of tasting, I can say hands down that this is the one. The plaited, sticky, orange-glazed cinnamon snegl is a feast for the eyes and a party for the mouth; the lightly lemony vanilla custard of the spandauer is exquisite; and the tebirkes is like the most delicious love child of a traditional tebirkes and a doughnut.
35 kroner, 10/10

Laura Hall is the author of Modern Scandinavian, a Substack about life in northern Europe

FBI searches Fulton County election office in Georgia over 2020 election concerns linked to Trump-Biden contest.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is executing a search warrant at a Fulton County election office in Georgia related to the 2020 United States election, an agency spokesperson said.

An FBI spokesperson said agents were “executing a court-authorised law enforcement action” at the county’s main election office in Union City, just south of Atlanta. The spokesperson declined to provide any further information, citing an ongoing matter.

FBI agents were spotted entering the Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center, said Fox News, which first reported the search of a new facility that state officials opened in 2023.

The probe concerns the 2020 election, in which Republican Donald Trump, the current US president, lost to the former US president, Democrat Joe Biden, the official said.

The search comes as the FBI, under the leadership of Director Kash Patel, has moved quickly to pursue the political grievances of Trump, including by working with the Justice Department to investigate multiple perceived adversaries of the commander-in-chief.

The Justice Department had no immediate comment.

Find the votes

Trump has long insisted that the 2020 election was stolen even though judges across the country and his own attorney general said they found no evidence of widespread fraud that tipped the contest in Biden’s favour.

Representatives for Fulton County’s election office referred queries to the county’s external affairs office, which did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

The Democratic-leaning county, home to Atlanta, backed Biden by a wide margin in the 2020 election, helping him win the state and the presidency.

Trump unsuccessfully sought to overturn the result, pressuring the state’s top election official to “find” him enough votes to claim victory.

Earlier this month, Trump asked a state court for $6.2m in legal fees, saying he spent it fighting criminal charges of election interference filed by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.

In August 2023, Willis obtained an indictment against Trump and 18 others, accusing them of participating in a wide-ranging scheme to illegally try to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

That case was dismissed in November after courts barred Willis and her office from pursuing it because of an “appearance of impropriety” stemming from a romantic relationship she had with a prosecutor she had appointed to lead the case.

UNION CITY, Ga. — FBI agents were executing a search warrant at the Fulton County elections office near Atlanta on Wednesday, an agency spokesperson confirmed.

An FBI spokesperson said agents were “executing a court authorized law enforcement action” at the county’s main election office in Union City, just south of Atlanta. The spokesperson declined to provide any further information, citing an ongoing matter.

The search comes as the FBI under the leadership of Director Kash Patel has moved quickly to pursue the political grievances of President Trump, including by working with the Justice Department to investigate multiple perceived adversaries of the Republican commander-in-chief.

The Justice Department had no immediate comment.

Trump has long insisted that the 2020 election was stolen even though judges across the country and his own attorney general said they found no evidence of widespread fault that tipped the contest in Democrat Joe Biden’s favor.

He has long made Georgia, one of the battleground states he lost in 2020, a central target for his complaints about the election and memorably pleaded with its then-secretary of state to “find” him enough votes to overturn the contest.

Last week, in reference to the 2020 election, he asserted that “people will soon be prosecuted for what they did.” It was not clear what in particular he was referring to.

Fulton County District Atty. Fani Willis in August 2023 obtained an indictment against Trump and 18 others, accusing them of participating in a wide-ranging scheme to illegally try to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. That case was dismissed in November after courts barred Willis and her office from pursuing it because of an “appearance of impropriety” stemming from a romantic relationship she had with a prosecutor she had appointed to lead the case.

Brumback writes for the Associated Press.

At least 80 people, including 19 members of an elite marine force, are missing and feared buried in a landslide in Indonesia’s West Bandung. The death toll has risen to 17. A massive search operation is underway including thousands of rescue workers.