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.
Fulton County, Georgia, plans to take the Trump administration to court over the seizure of ballots in an investigation related to the 2020 election, according to local officials.
Fulton County Commissioner Marvin Arrington Jr. announced in a news release that the county will ask the Trump administration to force a judge on February 2 to return harvested ballots after the FBI executed search warrants at election centers in the Atlanta area last week.
“I have asked the county attorney to do everything possible to fight this criminal search warrant,” Arrington said.
The FBI raid on Jan. 28 at the Fulton County Election Hub Operations Center marked a significant escalation in the Trump administration’s efforts to overhaul the 2020 presidential election, which President Donald Trump lost to then-former Vice President Joe Biden.
Fulton County Commissioner Mo Ivory said federal agents recovered 700 boxes of ballots from a secure location during the search.
Trump falsely claimed on “The Dan Bongino Show” on February 2 that he won the 2020 election and mentioned the seizure of ballots.
“You’ll see that in the state of Georgia, we were able to obtain ballots with a court order,” Trump said. “Something interesting will come out.”
Fulton County, which includes Atlanta, is Georgia’s most populous county. Biden’s victory in the state in 2020, which has 16 presidential electors, contributed to Biden’s victory in the state. In the 2020 election, Biden won 306 electoral votes to Trump’s 232.
Ahead of Biden’s 2021 inauguration, Trump unsuccessfully tried to recover from his 2020 losses in several states, including Georgia.
On January 2, 2021, during a phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, President Trump said that “all we need is 11,780 votes” in Georgia. Raffensperger defended the accuracy of the state’s election results.
This story has been updated with additional information.
