Fulton County officials file lawsuit seeking return of 2020 ballots taken during FBI raid

Fulton County has filed a lawsuit challenging last week’s FBI raid on an elections warehouse, County Commission Chair Robb Pitts announced Wednesday. The lawsuit, which Pitts said was filed in federal district court, seeks the return of the roughly 700 boxes of election records seized during the raid, and for an affidavit the feds filed […]

Fulton County has filed a lawsuit seeking the return of the roughly 700 boxes of election records seized during last week's raid and for an affidavit the feds filed in support of the FBI’s search warrant to be unsealed. Stanley Dunlap/Georgia Recorder

Fulton County has filed a lawsuit challenging last week’s FBI raid on an elections warehouse, County Commission Chair Robb Pitts announced Wednesday.

The lawsuit, which Pitts said was filed in federal district court, seeks the return of the roughly 700 boxes of election records seized during the raid, and for an affidavit the feds filed in support of the FBI’s search warrant to be unsealed.

“Last week, I committed to the voters of Fulton County — and the world for that matter — that we will use every resource at our disposal to fight for their vote, and that we will fight using all resources against those who seek to take over our elections,” Pitts said. 

He also expressed concern about election documents from 2020 being tampered with.

“We don’t know, really, who has them. We don’t know what they’re doing with them,” Pitts said, adding that the county was not given prior notice that the raid was happening, or provided copies of the documents that were taken. “That’s why we’d like to get them back, so we can take an inventory.”

He added that the county was unable to share the court filings since they are under seal.

The Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center is located in Union City, just south of Atlanta. The county, which is home to much of the city of Atlanta, was also at the center of President Donald Trump’s baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen in Georgia and other swing states. Two recounts affirmed former President Joe Biden’s narrow victory in Georgia. 

This week, Trump has also repeatedly called for the Republican Party to “nationalize” voting and take over elections in the United States in “15 places,” though he has not specified where. Under the U.S. Constitution, elections are decentralized and governed primarily by state law.

Trump also called National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard on the phone during the raid, according to reporting from the New York Times, and praised the FBI agents for their work.

Georgia Democrats also condemned the seizure of the documents Wednesday, arguing that it is part of an attempt to interfere with Georgia’s upcoming midterm elections.

“This is a blatant attempt by our federal government not just to interfere with Georgia’s elections, but to take them over,” said Rep. Saira Draper, an Atlanta Democrat. “When President Trump is talking about nationalizing elections, he is talking about Georgia.”

Rep. Clint Crowe, a Jackson Republican who chairs the House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee, said it will be up to the courts to determine what information the FBI can hold onto and what will need to be returned to Fulton County.

“The vast majority of the folks who work in our elections offices are good people, and most of them are volunteering their time to make sure our process works the way it’s supposed to,” he said. “But we want to make sure those processes are in place and that those processes are followed. And I would imagine that that’s what this FBI investigation is looking into.”