ATLANTA — Fulton County, Georgia, has filed a motion in federal court seeking the return of all documents from the 2020 election that were seized last week from a warehouse near Atlanta by the FBI, county officials said Wednesday. The motion also requests the unsealing of a law enforcement agent’s sworn statement presented to the judge who authorized the search warrant, according to county chairman Robb Pitts.
The FBI conducted the search at Fulton County’s main election facility in Union City on January 28, seeking records related to the 2020 general election. Specifically, agents were looking for all ballots, tabulator tapes from the vote-counting scanners, electronic ballot images created during the initial count and subsequent recounts, and complete voter rolls.
Fulton County, a Democratic stronghold and the state’s most populous county, has been a focal point for scrutiny since the 2020 election, when Republican Donald Trump narrowly lost the state to Democrat Joe Biden. Trump has repeatedly and without evidence claimed widespread voter fraud in the county cost him the election.
Robb Pitts defended the county’s election practices, stating that 17 elections have been conducted since 2020 without issue. “The president himself and his allies, they refuse to accept the fact that they lost,” Pitts said. “And even if he had won Georgia, he would still have lost the presidency.”
Pitts also referenced recent comments made by Trump on a podcast, where Trump called for Republicans to “take over” and “nationalize” elections. “This case is not only about Fulton County. This is about elections across Georgia and across the nation,” he added.
The county is not releasing the full text of the motion to the court as the case is currently under seal.
This legal battle escalates ongoing tensions surrounding the 2020 election results and follows a pattern of challenges to the integrity of the voting process in Georgia. The FBI’s actions and Fulton County’s response signal a continued focus on election security and the handling of voting records.
