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Judge Allows DOJ to Keep Fulton County 2020 Ballots Despite Affidavit Flaws

Judge Allows DOJ to Keep Fulton County 2020 Ballots Despite Affidavit Flaws
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A federal judge in Atlanta ruled Wednesday that the Justice Department can keep more than 600 boxes of 2020 election ballots and records seized from Fulton County, rejecting local officials’ claims that the FBI raid trampled constitutional rights and threatened election integrity nbcnews +1. U.S. District Judge J.P. Boulee’s 68-page order, issued May 6, marked a significant victory for a Trump‑appointed Justice Department that has been pushing aggressively to reexamine President Trump’s 2020 loss in key jurisdictions apnews +1.

The FBI seized the ballots on Jan. 28 from a Fulton County elections warehouse outside Atlanta under a search warrant backed by an affidavit alleging missing ballot images, duplicate scans and discrepancies in prior audits reuters. County officials quickly sued for the return of the originals, arguing the operation was an “unprecedented” federal intrusion into local election administration and part of a broader campaign to relitigate a race that state reviews had already upheld ajc +1.

Judge Criticizes FBI Affidavit but Finds No “Callous Disregard”

In his ruling, Boulee acknowledged serious problems with the FBI’s warrant application, calling the affidavit “far from perfect,” “defective in some respects” and in places “misleading” and “troubling” nbcnews +1. Reporting has shown the document omitted key conclusions from Georgia’s own investigations that found procedural errors in Fulton County did not affect the 2020 outcome democracydocket. Even so, Boulee concluded those flaws did not meet the high bar of “callous disregard” for constitutional rights required to force the government to return property seized under a valid warrant nbcnews +1.

The judge also rejected Fulton County’s argument that it faced irreparable harm while the ballots remained in federal hands, noting the Justice Department has provided copies of the records and that the county’s ability to administer future elections or defend its past results had not been shown to be compromised nbcnews. “The seizure in this case was certainly not perfect,” Boulee wrote, but he said the extraordinary remedy the county sought was not justified nbcnews. Fulton Commission Chair Robb Pitts said he “strongly disagreed” and vowed to “vigorously pursue all available legal options” cnn.

Expanding Federal Demands Raise Fears Over Election Workers and Voters

The Fulton case unfolded as the Trump administration Justice Department widened its push for past election materials and data in multiple states. In April, federal prosecutors obtained a grand jury subpoena demanding the names and personal contact information of every person who worked the 2020 election in Fulton County, a request the county is now asking the courts to quash as overbroad and intimidating rawstory +1. Similar federal efforts have sought records from the partisan 2020 audit in Arizona’s Maricopa County and even 2024 ballots in Wayne County, Michigan, prompting resistance from state officials and lawsuits from voting-rights groups theguardian +1.

Election experts and civil-liberties advocates warned that the combination of ballot seizures and sweeping subpoenas could chill participation by local poll workers and volunteers already facing threats since 2020, and could concentrate sensitive voter data in federal hands without clear safeguards pbs +1. One analyst described the Fulton raid as an “extraordinary escalation” in an administration campaign to discredit the 2020 results and lay groundwork for interference in future contests lawandcrime. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican who has repeatedly defended the 2020 count, has likewise resisted federal demands for unredacted voter rolls, saying the state remains “the safest and most secure place to vote” nytimes.

The Bigger Picture

Boulee’s decision left Fulton County’s 2020 ballots in federal custody while criticizing — but ultimately validating — the Justice Department’s methods, underscoring how much leeway courts still give criminal investigators even in the fraught terrain of election administration nbcnews +1. With the same Justice Department also pressing for expansive access to voter data and poll-worker identities, the case has become a flashpoint in a wider struggle over who controls the physical evidence of U.S. elections and how far the executive branch can go in revisiting a race formally decided six years ago rawstory +1. As the 2026 midterms approach, the unresolved tension between safeguarding legitimate investigations and preventing the weaponization of law enforcement around elections is likely to intensify, with Fulton County now a central test of those boundaries.