Ashley Moody on Democracy and January 6: Her Brief to Overturn the 2020 Election, Confirming Emil Bove and Todd Blanche, and Votes on the Anti-Weaponization Fund

As Florida attorney general, Ashley Moody joined a December 9, 2020 brief backing Texas's lawsuit to block the results in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, states that carry a combined 62 votes in the Electoral College; the Supreme Court rejected the suit for lack of standing. In March 2024 she joined a brief backing Trump's immunity claim in his federal criminal case.

As a Florida senator, Moody voted to give Emil Bove a lifetime seat on a federal appeals court on a 50 to 49 vote and to make Todd Blanche attorney general on another 50 to 49 vote; each nomination would have failed without her. She also voted to confirm Pam Bondi, Kash Patel and Jeanine Pirro, whose offices prosecuted or investigated the President's critics in cases that mostly failed.

In June 2026 Moody voted four times against limits on the Justice Department's $1.776 billion "Anti-Weaponization Fund," including a motion that failed 49 to 50 and an amendment to compensate the officers who defended the Capitol on January 6, 2021. A judge froze the fund and Blanche rescinded it in August 2026, so it was never set up.

Ashley Moody's Record as Attorney General, the Justice Department Leaders She Confirmed and Her Votes on the January 6 Fund

• Moody Backed Texas's Lawsuit to Overturn the 2020 Election Results in Four States as Florida Attorney General. On December 9, 2020, as Florida attorney general, Ashley Moody joined 16 other states in a brief urging the Supreme Court to let Texas proceed with its suit to block election results in four swing states won by Joe Biden, saying, "The integrity and resolution of the 2020 election is of paramount importance." Emails later obtained by American Oversight showed that lawyers in her office had mocked the suit the day before she joined more than a dozen other state attorneys general in supporting it. The suit asked the Court to set aside the results in states that carry a combined 62 votes in the Electoral College. Two days later the Court denied Texas's motion for lack of standing.
• Moody Joined a Brief Backing Trump's Claim of Immunity From Criminal Prosecution in 2024. As Florida attorney general, Moody joined a Supreme Court brief by Republican attorneys general backing Trump's immunity claim in criminal case that Special Counsel Jack Smith had brought over the 2020 election, the Florida Phoenix reported on March 21, 2024. On July 1, 2024 the Court held in Trump v. United States that presidential power entitles a former President to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for acts within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority, and at least presumptive immunity for his other official acts.
• Moody Cast a Deciding Vote to Give Emil Bove a Lifetime Judgeship in July 2025. On July 29, 2025, Moody voted to confirm Emil Bove to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit; he was confirmed 50 to 49, so a no vote from Moody would have defeated the nomination. Before the vote, it was public that Bove, as acting deputy attorney general, had ordered the firing of a group of prosecutors involved in those Jan. 6 criminal cases and demanded the names of FBI agents who worked them (AP). A fired Justice Department lawyer, Erez Reuveni, said Bove had raised telling the courts to disregard orders on deportation flights; Bove denies it.
• Moody Cast a Deciding Vote to Confirm Todd Blanche as Attorney General in August 2026. On August 8, 2026, Moody voted to confirm Todd Blanche as attorney general; the vote was 50 to 49, so the nomination would have failed without her. Moody had also voted to confirm Blanche as deputy attorney general in March 2025. Asked in April 2026 about President Trump having publicly implored her to indict several of his political enemies, referring to Bondi, Blanche said Americans should be "happy" the President is involved. Under Blanche the department obtained a second indictment of James Comey, over a photo the former FBI director posted online, a case that is pending, and on October 22, 2026 it asked a federal court to block the division from certifying the result of the state's U.S. Senate election in Alaska if Democrat Mary Peltola wins; that case is pending.
• Moody Voted to Confirm Pam Bondi, Whose Justice Department Prosecuted Trump's Critics. On February 4, 2025, Moody voted to confirm Pam Bondi as attorney general. Under Bondi the department indicted James Comey and Letitia James in the fall of 2025, and a judge dismissed both cases because the prosecutor had been unlawfully appointed, and two grand juries then declined to re-indict James. Protect Democracy, which tracks these cases, found that "Most of those cases have failed". In January 2026 FBI agents were authorized to seize all physical ballots from the 2020 election in Fulton County, Georgia.
• Moody Voted to Confirm Kash Patel, Whose FBI Fired Agents Who Investigated Trump. On February 20, 2025, Moody voted to confirm Kash Patel as FBI director; he was confirmed 51 to 49. Patel's FBI fires special agents who worked on Jack Smith's probe into the President, and in October 2026 nine fired FBI employees filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Todd Blanche.
• Moody Voted to Confirm Jeanine Pirro, Whose Office Tried to Indict Members of Congress. On August 2, 2025, Moody voted to confirm Jeanine Pirro as U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., and she was confirmed 50 to 45. Her office investigated Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin and five other Democratic lawmakers over a video telling service members they may refuse illegal orders, and a grand jury on Tuesday declined to indict Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin on February 10, 2026.
• Moody Voted Against Requiring a Governor's Consent Before Troops Deploy in a State in October 2025. On October 9, 2025, Moody voted against an amendment to the defense bill to clarify certain limitations on full-time National Guard duty performed in a State, which would have required the governor's consent, and against an amendment to limit the provision of support by the Armed Forces to civilian law enforcement activities. Both failed. Two months later the Supreme Court refused, for now, to let the president send Guard troops into Illinois over the governor's objection, and troops have patrolled Washington, D.C. since August 2025 at a peak of about 5,000.
• Moody Cast a Deciding Vote Against a Motion to Bar Taxpayer Money for the Anti-Weaponization Fund in June 2026. On June 4, 2026, Moody voted no on Senator Chuck Schumer's motion to send the reconciliation bill, S. 2, back to the Judiciary Committee with instructions to safeguard the Justice Department from political influence, which the Congressional Record prints as possibly including a ban on payments under section 1304 of title 31 being used for or transferred to the Anti-Weaponization Fund. The motion failed 49 to 50, so a yes vote from Moody alone would have adopted it. Pardoned January 6 rioters had sought payouts from the $1.776 billion fund. Moody then voted for the bill on June 5, which the Senate passed after rejecting repeated attempts by members of both parties to prohibit or restrict the fund.
• Moody Voted Against Compensating the Officers Who Defended the Capitol and Against Two Other Limits on the Fund. On June 5, 2026, Moody voted against waiving budget rules for an amendment to provide compensation to law enforcement officers who defended the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, which failed 52 to 47 under a 60-vote rule. She also voted against amendments to prohibit the distribution of Federal funds to people convicted of certain crimes and to limit judgments and settlements paid from the Treasury. By early January 2025 the government had charged just over 1,580 people for crimes related to the riot, 608 of whom were charged with assaulting, resisting or impeding law enforcement, according to Justice Department figures, and two officers who defended the Capitol were suing to stop payments from a new fund. The fund was never set up: a judge has frozen the fund's formation, and Blanche formally rescinded the plan in August 2026.

What the Justice Department Under Officials Ashley Moody Confirmed Did With Florida Voter Records

• Florida voter file. Florida gave the Justice Department its complete statewide voter list, including driver's license and Social Security numbers, one of 16 states to do so, the Brennan Center's tracker shows. The department is led by Todd Blanche, whom Moody voted to confirm.

Frequently Asked Questions About Ashley Moody on Democracy and January 6

Last updated: 2026-10-25

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