A federal judge on Wednesday denied Fulton County’s request to have ballots and other materials from the 2020 election returned after they were seized by the FBI earlier this year, finding the government’s search warrant was flawed in places but not so deficient as to warrant undoing the seizure.
U.S. District Judge Jean-Paul Boulee issued a 68-page ruling rejecting the county’s argument that the affidavit supporting the warrant showed a “callous disregard” for the county’s rights. Boulee said the affidavit was “defective in some respects,” including misleading statements about the county’s final 2020 ballot count and “troubling” omissions concerning ballot mechanisms, but concluded those defects did not rise to the high threshold required to set aside a court-authorized seizure.
The search, carried out at a Fulton County elections office, sought broad election materials — including “all physical ballots” from 2020, tapes from vote-tabulating machines, ballot images and voter rolls — and resulted in the removal of more than 630 boxes of records. Fulton County sued earlier this year to compel the return of the materials and to prevent the government from reviewing copies until the dispute was resolved, arguing the seizure violated Fourth and Tenth Amendment protections and was taken in bad faith.
Boulee rejected the county’s constitutional claims and its contention that the alleged federal violations were time-barred. The judge said he could not ignore witness statements in the affidavit alleging ballot images in the county’s possession may have been modified as recently as 2024, which undercut the county’s statute-of-limitations argument. He also found the county’s evidence of irreparable harm if the materials were not returned “unpersuasive.”
At a contentious March hearing, Fulton County attorney Abbe Lowell accused the FBI affidavit of recycling long-debunked allegations and omitting material facts. Lowell said many of the affidavit’s witnesses were “election deniers” and noted one witness cited by the government had a criminal record. Ryan Macias, an elections expert who testified for the county, called portions of the affidavit incoherent and said it conflated unrelated matters. Justice Department attorney Tysen Duva acknowledged the affidavit had flaws but urged the court not to treat the filing as if it were being graded, noting “this isn’t grading a paper” and conceding the seizure might not result in indictments.
Related Recipes
Beth and Rip Kick Off a New Yellowstone Chapter With Dutton Ranch’s Two-Episode May 15 Premiere Across Paramount+ and Paramount Network
Outlander Final Episode Runs 80 Minutes, Debuts on Starz May 15 With 8 PM ET Linear Air
King Charles Joins DJ Set at Buckingham Palace Garden Party for The King’s Trust 50th Anniversary
Becerra under fire in final San Francisco debate as California governor race remains unsettled
Boulee also set out the government’s timeline for the probe: authorities say the matter was referred to the FBI “no later than” Jan. 5, an assessment was opened the following day, and an Atlanta FBI official approved a full investigation about a week later. An investigative summary was converted into a search-warrant affidavit beginning Jan. 22, according to a government filing the judge compelled in May.
The affidavit says investigators are examining potential violations of a federal law prohibiting voter intimidation and fraud as well as a statute requiring retention of federal election records for 22 months. Fulton County lawyers argued those statutes had run, but Boulee found the record did not support dismissal on that basis.
The referral came from Kurt Olsen, described in court filings as a “Presidentially appointed Director of Election Security and Integrity.” Olsen, who in 2020 worked with Texas officials seeking to challenge Georgia’s results, was subpoenaed by the House Jan. 6 committee in 2022; the committee’s records say he had multiple contacts with senior Justice Department officials and phone calls with former President Donald Trump on Jan. 6, 2021.
Trending Now
Beth and Rip Kick Off a New Yellowstone Chapter With Dutton Ranch’s Two-Episode May 15 Premiere Across Paramount+ and Paramount Network
Outlander Final Episode Runs 80 Minutes, Debuts on Starz May 15 With 8 PM ET Linear Air
Michael McGreevy Ignites Waiver-Wire Buzz with 3rd Straight Quality Start, Nine Ks vs Padres
Palisades Fire Memorial Opens as In-Process Site with Public Storytelling and Stonehenge by the Sea
Separately, Fulton County officials have asked a federal judge to quash a grand jury subpoena from the Justice Department that seeks personal information on thousands of people who served as election workers and volunteers in the county in 2020. Attorneys for the county and spokespeople for the Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment following Boulee’s decision.
Continue Reading
