Seized Ballots, Renewed Battles: Fbi’s Fulton County Raid Reignites 2020 Election Fight - Beritaja

By: Albert Michael - Wednesday, 18 February 2026 01:47:08

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Five years aft the 2020 statesmanlike election, national agents person hauled distant hundreds of thousands of ballots from Georgia’s about populous region — a melodramatic move that is reopening aged wounds and raising caller ineligible and governmental questions.

According to court filings, the FBI, connected January 28, seized 24 pallets containing about 700 boxes of ballots and related predetermination materials from a storage extracurricular Atlanta. The materials see beingness ballots, ballot images, tabulator tapes and elector rolls from Fulton County, which encompasses overmuch of Atlanta.

County challenges seizure, Judge orders warrant unsealed

Fulton County officials are now demanding the return of the records, arguing successful filings obtained by Politico that the seizure was carried retired pinch “callous disregard” for the law authorities of voters and region officials. U.S. District Judge J.P. Boulee, a Trump appointee, has been assigned to see the county’s situation and ordered the Justice Department to publically record the affidavit utilized to get the hunt warrant, citing “the value of the public’s entree to judicial proceedings.”

The warrant cites 2 national statutes: 1 criminalizing voting fraud successful national elections and different requiring that ballots beryllium preserved for 22 months aft Election Day. But successful documents unsealed connected Tuesday, the FBI’s justification relied mostly connected allegations from blimpish activists that authorities and section officials person many times rejected.

FBI Special Agent Hugh Evans asserted that alleged departures from ballot-handling protocols were capable to found probable origin that national laws were broken, though he attributed immoderate imaginable crimes to “unknown persons.” Evans wrote that if deficiencies were intentional, they would represent violations “regardless of whether the nonaccomplishment to clasp records aliases the deprivation of a adjacent tabulation of a ballot was result determinative for immoderate peculiar predetermination aliases race,” according to the unsealed filings cited by Politico.

Investigation stems from Trump ally’s referral

The investigation, the documents reveal, stemmed from a referral by Kurt Olsen, a Trump state progressive successful efforts to situation the 2020 predetermination results and later named by Trump arsenic the White House’s “director of predetermination information and integrity.” The filings do not picture immoderate caller grounds of fraud, but alternatively outline claims of irregularities successful ballot tallying and integer record-keeping.

Fulton County officials person acknowledged they did not clasp each integer scans and tallies from the 2020 predetermination but support they preserved the original insubstantial ballots and were unaware of immoderate request to support each scan. County Attorney Y. Soo Jo wrote successful tribunal papers that claims of fraud successful Georgia’s 2020 predetermination “have been exhaustively reviewed and, without exception, refuted,” noting that “Eleven different post-election lawsuits, challenging various aspects of Georgia’s predetermination process, grounded to show fraud.”

Jo besides based on that the national investigation extends “well beyond” the five-year statute of limitations for the criminal statute cited and beyond the 22-month record-retention period. She contended that utilizing a criminal warrant to get materials that are besides the taxable of pending civilian litigation amounts to bypassing normal judicial processes.

The Justice Department has not publically responded to the county’s motion.

Democrats condemn raid, FBI defends actions

Democratic lawmakers person sharply criticized the seizure. Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) successful an quality connected ABC’s This Week called the ambush “alarming astatine each level,” questioning why the FBI would enactment “five years aft the truth erstwhile location were 3 recounts successful Georgia.” Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) told section position 11Alive that he had requested a gathering pinch Attorney General Pam Bondi and described the FBI’s actions arsenic portion of “awful efforts astatine elector suppression.”

FBI Director Kash Patel defended the bureau’s actions successful an question and reply pinch Fox News, saying agents executed the hunt warrant arsenic they would successful immoderate criminal case: “We collected evidence, we presented that grounds to a national magistrate judge, who made a uncovering of probable cause.”

The renewed scrutiny has besides sparked interest among Georgia Democrats that the contention could beryllium utilized to warrant greater authorities oversight of Fulton County elections. Democratic Party of Georgia Chair Charlie Bailey warned, according to Politico, that the developments airs “a very existent threat” that the authorities elections committee could move to return complete the county’s predetermination operations.

For now, the ballots beryllium successful national custody arsenic ineligible arguments unfold.

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