By Andrew Goudsward
ATLANTA, March 27 (Reuters) – Georgia’s Fulton County will ask a federal judge on Friday to order the return of 2020 election ballots the FBI seized as it pursues Republican President Donald Trump’s false claims that his electoral defeat that year was the result of widespread voter fraud.
The hearing in Atlanta federal court is expected to scrutinize the evidence behind the FBI’s seizure of more than 600 boxes of election ballots during its January 28 search of Fulton County’s election center.
The search of the facility, attended by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, shows how the Trump administration is deploying U.S. law enforcement and intelligence authorities to reinvestigate his loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump has falsely claimed that his defeat in 2020 was marred by large-scale voter fraud and has sowed doubts about the security of U.S. elections ahead of the November midterm elections.
Lawyers for Fulton County, which includes most of Atlanta, have challenged the search in court, arguing it showed a “callous disregard” of the county’s rights under the U.S. Constitution and relied on previously debunked allegations.
“Despite years of investigations of the 2020 election,” the FBI had not “identified facts that establish probable cause that anyone committed a crime,” lawyers for Fulton County wrote in a court filing.
Atlanta-based U.S. District Judge J.P. Boulee agreed to hear evidence at Friday’s hearing about the search, but denied Fulton County’s request to put the FBI agent who drafted the affidavit supporting the warrant on the witness stand.
The Justice Department has accused Fulton County officials of seeking to disrupt an active investigation and argued that the county should not be able to override a magistrate judge’s determination that the search was legally justified.
FBI agents seized a large volume of material related to the 2020 election from the election center in Union City, Georgia, including original 2020 ballots. Authorities cited alleged “deficiencies or defects” with the 2020 vote, including claims that some digital images of ballots were missing and some absentee ballots did not appear to have been folded as required.
The investigation began with a referral from Kurt Olsen, a lawyer who aided Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election and has since been tasked by the White House with re-examining the vote.
Prosecutors cited potential violations of a records retention law and a law that criminalizes attempts to deprive or defraud residents of a fair election.
Lawyers for Fulton County have argued in court filings that witnesses interviewed by the FBI, including Republican members of the Georgia State Election Board, lack credibility. Some of their claims appear to be innocent mistakes, while others show a misunderstanding of how elections are run, they said.
Fulton County, a Democratic stronghold in a state that has become hotly contested in presidential elections, became the center of conspiracy theories and fraud claims spread by Trump and his allies following the 2020 election.
Biden’s wide margin in Fulton County was key to flipping Georgia in Democrats’ favor. The state swung back to Trump in 2024.
(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward in Atlanta; Editing by Michael Learmonth and Lisa Shumaker)
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