FBI search warrant filed at elections office near Atlanta seeks records linked to 2020 election

ATLANTA (AP) — The FBI on Wednesday raided the elections office in a Georgia county that has been central to right-wing conspiracy theories about President Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss, acting just a week after the Republican leader predicted prosecutions in a race he has baselessly insisted was tainted by widespread fraud.

The search at Fulton County’s main election facility in Union City sought records related to the 2020 election, county spokeswoman Jessica Corbitt-Dominguez said. It appeared to be the most public step by law enforcement to pursue Trump’s claims of a stolen election, complaints rejected time and again by state and federal courts and officials, who found no evidence of fraud that would have altered the result.

It also unfolds against the backdrop of the FBI and Justice Department’s efforts to investigate Trump’s alleged political enemies, including former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

For years, Trump has focused on Fulton, Georgia’s most populous county and a Democratic stronghold, as a key example of what he says went wrong in the 2020 election. His pressure campaign there culminated in a sweeping state indictment accusing him and 18 others of trying to illegally overturn the vote.

An FBI spokesman said agents were “executing a court-authorized law enforcement action” at the county’s main elections office in Union City, just south of Atlanta. The spokesperson declined to provide further information, citing an ongoing matter.

Corbitt-Dominguez said a warrant “seeked a number of records related to the 2020 election,” but declined to comment further because the search was still ongoing.

The Justice Department had no immediate comment.

Trump has long insisted that the 2020 election was stolen, even though judges across the country and his own attorney general said they found no evidence of widespread guilt that tilted the race in favor of Democrat Joe Biden.

The president has made Georgia, one of the battleground states he lost in 2020, a central target of his complaints about the election and memorably pressured his secretary of state to help “find” enough votes to overturn the race.

Last week, referring to the 2020 election, he stated that “soon people will be prosecuted for what they did.” It was unclear what he was referring to in particular.

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In August 2023, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis obtained an indictment against Trump and 18 others, accusing them of participating in a wide-ranging scheme to try to illegally overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. That case was dismissed in November after courts barred Willis and his office from pursuing the case due to an “appearance of wrongdoing” stemming from a romantic relationship he had with a prosecutor he had hired to handle the case.

Last week, the FBI moved to replace its top agent in Atlanta, Paul W. Brown, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a non-public personal decision. It was not immediately clear why the action, which was not released by the FBI, was taken.

Last month, the Justice Department sued the Fulton County Clerk of Superior and Magistrate Courts in federal court seeking access to documents from the 2020 election in the county. The lawsuit says the department sent a letter to the secretary, Che Alexander, but that she did not produce the requested documents.

Alexander has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit. The Justice Department’s complaint says the purpose of its request was “to determine Georgia’s compliance with various federal election laws.” It also says the attorney general is trying to help the State Board of Elections with its “transparency efforts under Georgia law.”

A three-person conservative majority on the State Board of Elections has repeatedly tried to reopen a case alleging irregularities by Fulton County during the 2020 election. It passed a resolution in July requesting assistance from the U.S. attorney general in accessing election materials.

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The state board sent subpoenas to the county board for several election documents last year and again on Oct. 6. The October subpoena requested “all used and void ballots, all ballot stubs, signature envelopes, and corresponding envelope digital files from the 2020 General Election in Fulton County.” A fight over the state board’s efforts to enforce the 2024 subpoena is currently stalled in court.

The Justice Department sent a letter to the county board of elections on Oct. 30 citing the federal Civil Rights Act and requesting all records in response to the State Board of Elections’ October subpoena. Lawyers for the county board of elections responded about two weeks later, saying the records are in the hands of the county clerk of court. They also attached a letter the clerk sent to the State Board of Elections saying the records are sealed in accordance with state law and cannot be released without a court order.

The Justice Department said it then sent a letter to Alexander, the secretary, on Nov. 21 requesting the documents and that she did not respond.

The department is asking a judge to declare that the secretary’s “refusal to provide election records at the Attorney General’s request” violates the Civil Rights Act. It also asks the judge to order Alexander to produce the requested records within five days of the court order.

In May 2024, the State Board of Elections heard a case of alleged lack of documentation for thousands of votes in the recount of the presidential race in the 2020 election. After a presentation by an attorney and an investigator for the secretary of state’s office, a response from the county, and a lengthy discussion among board members, the board voted to issue a letter of reprimand to the county.

Shortly after that vote, there was a change of power on the board and the newly consolidated conservative majority sought to reopen the case. The board’s lone Democrat and the chairman have repeatedly objected, arguing that the case is closed and citing multiple reviews that have found that while the 2020 county elections were sloppy and mismanaged, there was no evidence of intentional irregularities.

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News writer Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.