By Rebecca St Fleur
Correspondent
The FBI raided an elections office in Fulton County, Georgia on Wednesday, Jan. 28. Agents seized over 700 boxes of records, voter rolls and tabulator tapes from the 2020 presidential election, but it is not clear yet who is being investigated, according to Fox 5 News.
Fulton County Commissioner Marvin Arrington Jr. announced in a news release on Monday, Feb. 2 that the county will file a motion against President Donald Trump’s administration contesting "the legality of the warrant and the seizure of sensitive election records, and force the government to return the ballots taken,” reports NBC News. “The search warrant,” he continued, “I believe, is not proper, but I think that there are ways that we can limit it. We want to ask for forensic accounting, we want the documents to stay in the State of Georgia under seal, and we want to do whatever we can to protect voter information.”
Rob Pitts, the chairman of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, pushed back at the FBI’s actions, saying, “Fulton County is now, has been, and always will be committed to upholding the law, no matter what anyone else does." In regards to the actual ballots taken, Pitts and the public remain in the dark. “While they were here, they were safe and they [were] secure. Once they left Fulton County… I don’t know where they are, I don’t know who has them, I don’t know what they’re doing with them," according to Fox 5 News.
In the days following, Pitts spoke to CNN about his concerns that this raid was laying the groundwork for the federal government to intervene in this year’s upcoming midterm elections by sowing doubt in voter security and the election process.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was also spotted at the raid scene. This has brought attention due to the fact that the DNI has no jurisdiction to conduct or oversee investigations and has provoked questions as to why she was there in the first place.
In response, the office of the Director of National Intelligence released this statement: “Director Gabbard recognizes that election security is essential for the integrity of our republic and our nation’s security. As DNI, she has a vital role in identifying vulnerabilities in our critical infrastructure and protecting against exploitation.”
In addition, the New York Times revealed that Gabbard met with some of the same FBI agents conducting the inquiry and arranged a meeting with Trump: “Ms. Gabbard used her cellphone to call Mr. Trump, who did not initially pick up but called back shortly after, the people said. The president addressed the agents on speakerphone, asking them questions as well as praising and thanking them for their work on the inquiry…”
These actions are unusual and unprecedented in traditional law enforcement, according to reporting in the New York Times, which also states that according to a U.S. official, Trump ordered Gabbard to Georgia for the raid himself.
Trump has repeatedly claimed that the 2020 election was stolen from him on the basis of voter fraud, but judges across the nation and two recounts have found no evidence of this.
Trump lost the battleground state of Georgia and then afterwards contacted the then secretary of state to “find” 11,780 ballots. However, even if Georgia’s electoral votes were overturned in Trump’s favor, he would still not have obtained enough votes to win the election.
He once again repeated these same claims in the wake of the raid, posting on Truth Social: “TRUMP WON BIG. Crooked Election!”
In August 2023, Fani Willis, Fulton County’s District Attorney, acquired a 41 count indictment against Trump and 18 others, accusing them of illegally trying to overturn the election. The case was later on dismissed.
Kristin Nabers, the state director of All Voting Is Local, a voting rights group, said, “The administration is using Fulton County as a blueprint to see what they can get away with elsewhere. If they’re allowed to take ballots here, then what would stop them from seizing ballots or voting machines in any future election in a county or state where their preferred candidates lose?... This is an attempt to take your vote away,” she said. “This is all about November 2026,” reported the Guardian.
