The Trump administration can keep 2020 election votes taken in Georgia, the judge rules
A US judge on Wednesday ruled that the Justice Department can keep 2020 election ballots seized during an FBI search in January, a victory for President Donald Trump’s administration as it follows the president’s false allegations of widespread voter fraud.
Atlanta-based US District Judge JP Boulee denied Fulton County’s request for the return of the original copies of the seized materials.
District attorneys argued that the FBI’s search of the district’s polling place relied on faulty and unauthorized evidence and violated protections under the US Constitution.
Boulee ruled that there were flaws in the FBI affidavit used to obtain a judge’s warrant for the search, but concluded that those flaws did not amount to an “unreasonable disregard” for the district’s rights, the legal standard required for the records to be returned.
“Although the Affidavit was far from perfect, this is not a case where an officer omits all facts that might undermine probable cause or where an officer knowingly lies,” Boulee wrote in the 68-page decision.
Fulton County intends to “vigorously” pursue all available legal options, county chairman Robb Pitts said in a statement, while adding that he does not agree with the judge’s decision.
Spokesmen for the FBI and the Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The ruling is a rare court victory for Trump’s Justice Department in an investigation that Trump wants.
It will allow the FBI to keep more than 600 2020 ballot boxes as it pursues a criminal investigation into whether election records were improperly kept or whether residents of Fulton County, which includes much of Atlanta, were cheated out of a fair election.
But the investigation still faces major obstacles.
DOJ attorneys have not identified any targets of the investigation and have not disputed claims that the statute of limitations appears to have expired on both criminal prosecutors who say they are investigating.
THE CONTROVERSY HAS BECAME WELL BEFORE THE NOVEMBER ELECTIONS
The dispute has been closely watched by election officials and experts across the country as Trump continues to threaten to take the federal government into local elections and cast doubt on voting ahead of the November election.
Trump has continued to falsely claim that his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden was the result of widespread fraud and has sent US law enforcement and intelligence agencies to further investigate claims about vote-rigging and tallying.
Attorneys for the Justice Department argued that Fulton County did not meet the strict legal standard necessary to protect the return of items seized during court-authorized searches.
During the search, which was authorized by a federal magistrate judge, the FBI seized 2020 primary ballots and other records from a county election center in Union City, Georgia.
Authorities cited alleged “errors or errors” in the 2020 ballot, including allegations that some digital images of ballots were missing and some absentee ballots appeared not to be folded as required.
The investigation began with the referral of Kurt Olsen, a lawyer who helped Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election and has been tasked by the White House with re-examining the vote.
Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s director of national intelligence, attended the search for the top official on foreign threats to the United States.
Fulton County, a hotly contested Democratic stronghold in the presidential election, has been at 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 swinging Georgia in favor of the Democrats.
The state returned to Trump in 2024.
Fulton County attorneys argued that the FBI’s affidavit used to justify the search left out important context showing that many of its claims were previously investigated and found to be baseless or the errors were not the result of willful misconduct.
During a March court hearing in Atlanta, an election expert advising the county on the 2020 election testified that much of the evidence presented in the affidavit appeared to show a misunderstanding of how the election was run.
