(The Center Square) – A federal judge said Wednesday the U.S. Department of Justice does not have to return 2020 election records seized during a January raid in Georgia’s Fulton County.
Fulton County Commission Chairman Rob Pitts and the county election board sued the Justice Department in February to recover the records.
U.S. District Judge J.P. Boulee called the actions leading up to the Jan. 28 raid “unprecedented,” “defective and “troubling” but said Pitts and the election board failed to show they would be irreparably harmed since they have copies of the records.
The plaintiffs also failed to show “their rights were callously disregarded either through the lack of probable cause, omissions in the affidavit or by the manner of the execution of the seizure.”
The FBI seized more than 600 boxes of ballots, tabulator tapes and other election-related materials during the raid.
“These documents discuss an ongoing criminal investigation that is neither public nor known to all of the targets of the investigation,” FBI special agent Hugh Raymond Evans said in the warrant.
Pitts said the county will continue to stand by its election workers and the voters of Fulton County.
“I certainly agree with the court that the FBI warrant affidavit was ‘defective,’ ‘problematic,’ and ‘troubling,’ and that the events in this case are ‘unprecedented,” Pitts said in a statement emailed to The Center Square on Wednesday evening. ”But I strongly disagree with the judge’s denial of Fulton County’s request for the FBI to return the election records it wrongly seized on January 28. Our fight has exposed the flawed affidavit and suspicious timeline of federal actions. We intend to vigorously pursue all available legal options.”
President Donald Trump has consistently questioned the election results not just in Georgia but also in other states where he lost the Electoral College votes.
Biden defeated Trump 306-232 in the Electoral College; Georgia contributed 16 to the Democrats’ win, not enough of a swing (32 points) to reverse the 74-point setback. Recounts did not find enough evidence to overturn the results.
