FBI searches Fulton County elections office seeking 2020 ballots. Here’s what we know.

The FBI executed a search warrant at an election office in Fulton County, Ga., on Wednesday, seeking to collect ballots as part of an investigation that a source told CBS News is related to the 2020 presidential election.

Fulton County confirmed that the FBI executed a search warrant at its election operations center and “searched for a number of documents related to the 2020 election.” A state senator in attendance told reporters that the FBI had searched hundreds of boxes containing ballots.

The search attracted several senior Trump administration officials. FBI Deputy Director Andrew Bailey and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard were both seen outside the elections office Wednesday evening. A news conference with federal officials was initially planned, then canceled.

“Director Gabbard plays a central role in election security and protecting the integrity of our elections from interference, including operations targeting voting systems, databases and election infrastructure,” a senior administration official told CBS News.

The FBI operation follows years of claims by President Trump — without proof — that the 2020 election was rigged, many of which focused on Fulton County.

What is the FBI investigating in Fulton County?

It’s unclear exactly what information the FBI is seeking, although the agency confirmed in a statement that it had conducted a “court-authorized law enforcement action.”

The office appears to be investigating violations of two federal criminal laws, according to a search warrant shared on social media by Fulton County Commissioner Marvin Arrington Jr.

One of these laws makes it a crime for election officials to intimidate voters and deprive them of fair elections by submitting fraudulent ballots or registration applications. The other law requires election officials to keep federal election records for 22 months.

The warrant was signed by U.S. Magistrate Judge Catherine Salinas. Typically, to obtain a search warrant, authorities must demonstrate that there is probable evidence of a crime in a particular location. It is unclear what evidence the FBI presented.

Democratic Sen. Josh McLaurin told reporters that the FBI showed up at the elections office looking to take “700 ballot boxes” and was seen loading ballot boxes into trucks. McLaurin posted video of an FBI evidence response team at the office.

Robb Pitts, chairman of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, criticized the search, saying at a news conference Wednesday evening that he “can no longer certify that these ballots are secure.”

The Justice Department attorney listed on the search warrant was Thomas Albus, acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri. It is unclear why Albus’ name appears on the warrant rather than that of a Georgia-based Justice Department official. A spokesperson for Albus’ office did not respond to a request for comment from CBS News.

The search took place at the Fulton County Election Center and Operations Center, but the warrant shared by Arrington was addressed to the Clerk of Court’s office – apparently due to a discrepancy in Georgia law.

Earlier in the day, the FBI showed up with a warrant for the Fulton County Elections Office, but 2020 ballots and other election materials are technically being kept under seal by the Fulton County Superior Court clerk under state law, requiring federal officials to seek a new warrant for the clerk’s office, Fulton County Commissioner Dana Barrett told CBS News.

Barrett said the FBI and Clerk of Courts Che’ Alexander were filming the process of inventorying the boxes for chain-of-custody purposes.

The federal government has not commented publicly on why it conducted the search. The FBI said in a statement that it could not provide details because its “investigation into this matter is ongoing.” The White House referred a request for comment to the FBI.

Why is the Trump administration interested in Fulton County?

Home to Atlanta and some of its suburbs, Fulton County is Georgia’s most populous county and a key Democratic stronghold — and it played a central role in Mr. Trump’s false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.

In the weeks following the 2020 race, Mr. Trump’s allies claimed, without evidence, that widespread fraud in Fulton County led to former President Joe Biden’s narrow victory in Georgia, by 11,779 votes, and urged state officials to overturn the results. At one point, Mr. Trump told Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger: “I just want to find 11,780 votes.”

Trump-appointed Attorney General Bill Barr said in 2020 that the Justice Department had not found evidence of fraud on a large enough scale to swing the results of the election. Biden’s victory in Georgia was also confirmed by both an automatic recount and an audit involving the hand tells by every county in the state.

But Mr Trump continued to insist that the 2020 election was “rigged” and, since returning to the White House, has vowed to investigate the matter.

“It was a rigged election. Everyone knows that now,” the president said in a speech last week in Davos, Switzerland. “People will soon be prosecuted for what they did. This is probably breaking news, but it should be. This was a rigged election.”

Last month, the Justice Department filed a civil suit against Alexander, the Fulton County clerk, asking a judge to force her to turn over 2020 election ballots and other county voting records. The department said she failed to turn over the records as part of a Justice Department investigation into whether the county was complying with federal election law.

Alexander asked the court to dismiss the suit, arguing that the Justice Department failed to present a legitimate reason for requesting the records. She also said the records were under seal and would have to be unsealed by a state judge in Fulton County. A judge has not yet ruled on the matter.

Additionally, Fulton County has attracted national attention because County Attorney Fani Willis criminally accused Mr. Trump and more than a dozen others ran a racket in 2023, accusing them of illegally trying to overturn Mr. Trump’s 2020 election defeat.

The case stalled for years, in part because a appeals court remanded Willis of the case involving a romantic relationship she had with a special prosecutor she hired to help her in the investigation, which poses a “significant appearance of impropriety.” Another prosecutor who replaced Willis decided to dismiss the proceedings “to serve the interests of justice”.

How did the Democrats react?

Local Democratic politicians have sharply criticized the FBI and suggested it could be linked to Mr Trump’s fraud allegations.

“I still can’t understand the fascination with the 2020 election, which took place six years ago,” Pitts said. “This election has been reviewed, it has been audited, and in every case, in every case, we get a clean bill of health.”

Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia said in a statement: “I suspect that today’s raid is a continuation of this crusade of sore losers, despite repeated audits and independent reviews confirming that Donald Trump was indeed defeated.” »

Democratic Rep. Nikema Williams of Georgia demanded that the FBI end its investigation, writing that “renewed raids and investigations based on the lie that President Trump won the election lack factual basis and only serve to intimidate voters and undermine the integrity of our upcoming elections.”

Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, specifically questioned Gabbard’s involvement. He wrote in a statement that “there are only two possible explanations” for why the director of national intelligence would be present during the FBI search.

“Either Director Gabbard believes there was a legitimate foreign intelligence connection – in which case she is clearly violating her obligation under the law to keep the intelligence committees ‘fully and presently informed’ of relevant national security concerns – or she is once again demonstrating her complete lack of fitness for the position she occupies by injecting the nonpartisan intelligence community she is supposed to lead into a domestic political coup designed to legitimize conspiracy theories that undermine our democracy,” wrote Warner.