A federal judge has canceled a grand jury subpoena that sought an “astonishing” trove of information about 2020 election officials in Atlanta’s Fulton County.
FBI raids Georgia election center in 2020-related investigation
The FBI executed a search warrant at the Fulton County Election Hub and Operations Center near Atlanta as part of an investigation related to the 2020 election.
In a blow to President Donald Trump’s efforts to investigate the 2020 presidential election, a federal judge on July 7 canceled a grand jury subpoena seeking information about 2020 election officials in Atlanta’s Fulton County.
Judge William M. Wray II, who was appointed to the federal bench by President Trump in 2018, said the “scope of the grand jury subpoena…is staggering,” including the personal identifying information of “thousands of employees and volunteers.”
A series of audits, recounts, and trials yielded no evidence to support President Trump’s claims that Joe Biden defeated him through widespread fraud, but President Trump continued to promote his baseless claims.
The subpoena asked for the names, addresses, email addresses and personal phone numbers of a series of employees and volunteers from 2020. That includes those who screened mail-in ballots, forwarded results, counted ballots and later assisted in audits and recounts.
The investigation appears to be part of a broader effort by the Justice Department under the Trump administration to reexamine the 2020 election. In January, the FBI seized 2020 ballots and other election records from the Fulton County Elections Hub and Operations Center. Judge J.P. Bouley, another Trump appointee, ruled in May that the agency could keep the seized records.
The FBI has been directed to send 260 investigative analysts and staff affairs specialists to investigate the 2020 election in Fulton County, which covers much of Atlanta, according to an internal memo obtained by The Associated Press. Each of these officials has been instructed to check an estimated 708 records by July 17th.
Although the Justice Department argued to Wray that it wanted information about the workers for legitimate law enforcement activities, the judge suggested the subpoena’s real purpose was to substantiate President Trump’s debunked theories about the 2020 election. Ray wrote that any fraud that may be uncovered in the investigation cannot be prosecuted because the statute of limitations – the legal deadline for filing criminal charges – has passed.
“Therefore, investigating the alleged criminal conduct of any person that may have led to the certification of the 2020 Georgia election is not a legitimate use of the grand jury and its subpoena powers,” Wray wrote.
“The statute of limitations for any crime arising from the 2020 election has long passed,” Wray wrote, and if the subpoena is seeking information that is unlikely to result in an indictment because it has expired, the need for the Justice Department to seek that information has “diminished.”
Justice Department spokeswoman Kiersten Pels characterized these statements as probabilistic, not certain.
“The district court’s judgment is probably “Due to the expiration of the statute of limitations, a grand jury cannot investigate the 2020 Georgia election, which is inconsistent with numerous Supreme Court precedents,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
“The department is considering all options to challenge the court’s order, which jeopardizes both the grand jury’s historic authority and the long-delayed assessment of the 2020 election process,” the spokesperson added.
Trump has long claimed, without evidence, that he was the true winner of the 2020 election. Audits, recounts and lawsuits in key battleground states, including Georgia, found no evidence of fraud that would change the outcome of the election.
In rescinding the subpoena, Wray noted that the information at issue is so private and sensitive that private companies could be sued in data breach lawsuits if they fail to protect the information.
The judge also wrote that releasing too much information about 2020 election officials would discourage people from cooperating in future elections.
“Disclosure on such a large scale threatens to discourage participation in future elections and will certainly have an impact on Fulton County,” he said.
Trump and 18 other defendants were charged in a Georgia criminal case in 2023 for allegedly conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election, including replacing Georgia’s presidential electors with Trump supporters and Trump pressuring Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to change the state’s results.
In a phone conversation on January 2, 2021, President Trump told Raffensperger in Georgia, “All we need is 11,780 votes.” Raffensperger defended the accuracy of the state’s election results.
After the lead prosecutor in the case was disqualified because of his romantic relationship with another prosecutor, another prosecutor decided that given Trump’s 2024 election victory, it was best to “serve the interests of justice and promote judicial finality” by dropping the case. Some defendants had already entered into plea deals, while others, including Mr. Trump, had their cases dismissed.
