(The Center Square) – A national news report indicates an FBI investigation into Fulton County’s 2020 election is intensifying.
Fulton County has not received any communication, notification or additional subpoenas from the FBI or the Justice Department about an increase in agents reviewing ballots, a spokesman for Fulton County Commission Chairman Robb Pitts told The Center Square in an email.
MS NOW, formerly MSNBC, reported the FBI has hundreds of analysts examining ballots from the 2020 election. The agency seized more than 600 boxes of ballots, tabulator tapes and other election-related materials during a January raid on the Fulton County Elections Office.
FBI special agent Hugh Raymond Evans said in the warrant that the documents were part of an ongoing criminal investigation. In the nearly six months since the raid, no criminal charges have been filed, and no end date has been given for the probe.
“We cannot comment on status of investigation or any potential steps being taken,” FBI spokesman Tony Thomas said in an email to The Center Square.
Last week, a Trump-appointed federal judge denied the Justice Department’s subpoenas for Fulton County election workers’ personal information.
“The information sought herein (names, addresses, phone numbers, emails) is private and sensitive, so much so that should a private company fail to protect such information from electronic thieves, such company would most likely be sued in a data breach class action lawsuit,” U.S. District Judge William M Ray II wrote in his order. “Thus, everyone, whether you support the president or you do not, or whether you believe the 2020 election was fair or believe that it was not, should be concerned about the DOJ’s ability to utilize the power of the grand jury to appropriate your private information without a legitimate purpose.”
President Donald Trump has said repeatedly that the election was “stolen” and that he won Georgia’s electoral college votes in 2020. Former President Joe Biden defeated Trump 306-232 in the Electoral College. Georgia contributed 16 electoral votes to the Democrats’ win, not enough by itself to reverse the 74 votes needed to overcome Biden.
