Disturbing body camera footage shows raid on Fulton County election hub
Body camera footage taken by Fulton County police showed the initial chaos inside the election site when FBI agents arrived.
The warrant allowing access to an election site in Fulton County, Georgia, was unsealed on February 10, more than a week after federal agents seized hundreds of boxes containing 2020 election-related materials.
When FBI agents arrived at the Union City facility, they were not carrying physical warrants, leading to confusion about whether agents and local police had permission to access the ballot repository.
Body camera footage taken by Fulton County police showed federal agents saying the warrant needed to be updated because they didn’t have all the information about the building, but a digital version was given to a court clerk and the face of the warrant was shown to police.
The full warrant also remained sealed to Fulton County authorities. On February 4, a motion was filed under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 41(g) alleging that federal investigators may have had access to election materials, but that the ballots should not have been removed from the clerk’s custody. The motion requests that the materials be returned to Fulton County.
The judge ordered the warrant to be unsealed by February 10, with the names of non-government witnesses redacted. This is what it is about.
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“Following the November 3, 2020 presidential election, there were numerous allegations of election fraud related to the voting process and vote counting in Fulton County, Georgia,” FBI Special Agent Hugh Raymond Evans said in an affidavit. “Some of these allegations have been disproven, while others have been vindicated, including through Fulton County’s admission.”
The warrant goes on to say that the FBI’s criminal investigation stemmed from a “letter of introduction sent by Kurt Olsen,” whom President Trump appointed as “Director of Election Security and Integrity.”
But Kurt Olsen is better known as the “Stop the Steal” lawyer. Olsen was a key member of the team to deny Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election, even drafting an executive order directing the Justice Department to take action by January 6th. Mr. Olsen then ran for Arizona governor and represented TV personality Kari Lake, who claimed that electronic voting machines were used to rig the election against winner Katie Hobbs.
“The unsealing of this affidavit confirms what many of us feared from the beginning: This unusual FBI investigation is rooted in reuse theories and politically motivated claims that have already been considered and rejected numerous times,” Fulton County Commissioner Marvin Arrington Jr. said in a statement.
What did FBI agents take away from the heart of the election?
This warrant authorizes investigators to seize physical ballots from Fulton County, including but not limited to absentee ballots, early ballots, provisional ballots, election day in-person ballots, emergency ballots, damaged or mutilated ballots, duplicate ballots, or other ballots used in voting.
Investigators may also collect tally tapes, images of ballots, and voter rolls.
Fulton County officials said investigators removed about 650 boxes of materials, but they maintain the action remains illegal. Officials said there was no chain of custody for the materials, officials received the originals but did not retain copies and the ballots should never have been physically removed from Fulton County.
The exact items taken from the hub have not been made public.
Investigators allege that Fulton County’s tabulation machines were missing scan images of each ballot, and that some ballots were scanned multiple times during the recount.
The warrant also says absentee ballots were found in “new” condition during the audit, suggesting they had been folded and not mailed.
“On the day of the recount reporting deadline, Fulton County reported a recount of 511,343 total votes cast, which is 17,434 fewer votes than originally counted,” the warrant states. “The next day, Fulton County reported that a total of 527,925 votes had been counted.”
Fulton County officials said concerns about the ballots had already been addressed in previous investigations.
“Fulton County’s 2020 election has been audited, recounted, litigated, and certified. Neither courts, state officials, nor independent investigations have found any evidence that our vote count was compromised or that the results are in doubt. And all state agencies are run by Republicans,” Arrington said. “Yet, federal agents continue to carry out large-scale seizures of ballots and election records, an action that risks undermining rather than increasing public trust.”
A motion to return the items to Georgia is still under consideration.
Eileen Wright is an Atlanta Connect reporter for USA Today’s Deep South Connect team. X Find her at @IreneEWright or email her at ismith@usatodayco.com.
