FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — After a short legal battle, it was ordered that the full federal search warrant be unsealed that served as the basis for the FBI raid for 2020 election ballots in Fulton County.
A federal judge gave a deadline of Tuesday for the warrant to be unsealed.
The affidavits tied to the warrant were unsealed Tuesday afternoon.
According to the documents, the FBI was told to investigate a discrepancy in the vote counts reported by Fulton County election officials, with the warrant alleging that there were missing ballot images from the 2020 election records.
The documents were seized by the U.S. Department of Justice on Jan. 28. The FBI sent agents to Fulton County election offices, and they seized ballots and election-related documents from the 2020 presidential race.
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The seizure prompted quick legal action by county officials in federal court.
According to the previously available warrant, agents were told to seize records related to alleged violations of U.S. Code Title 52, the federal rules for record preservation from elections.
The portion of the warrant already made public ordered agents to seize all records related to alleged violations beginning on Oct. 12, 2020 in Fulton County.
The warrant called for all physical ballots from the election, including absentee ballots and envelopes, advanced voting ballots, provisional ballots, in-person ballots from election day, emergency ballots, damaged or destroyed ballots, duplicated ballots and any other ballots used to cast a vote.
Agents were also directed to get the tabulator tapes for all Fulton County voting machines from the 2020 election, all ballot images from Nov. 3 and copies of voters rolls from that year’s elections.
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Fulton County Chairman Robb Pitts and the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections filed a motion to have the full record unsealed.
Pitts said when FBI agents arrived at the facility, their warrant did not include the correct location for 2020 election records.
Agents had to get a new warrant signed by a judge and return. They seized 700 boxes of ballots and voter data from the presidential election.
Hours of body camera video obtained by Channel 2 Action News through an open records request showed agents going through the facility.
Fulton County Elections Supervisor Nadine Williams was present during the operation and expressed surprise at the arrival of federal agents. She later stated that her staff cooperated with the agents once the situation was clarified.
“The staff was concerned,” Williams said. “We had nothing to hide. Nothing had been destroyed. We just wanted to make sure that the people that were representing the FBI were legitimate and they were doing a legitimate process.”
The affidavit says that if deficiencies in the number of election records were the result of intentional action, then seizing the records would corroborate analysis saying election records were destroyed and/or that the vote counts included materially false votes, including duplicated specific ballots.
The document also says it supports keeping records sealed to prevent “giving targets opportunity to destroy or tamper with evidence, change patterns of behavior, notify confederates or flee from prosecution.”
In response to the warrants that were unsealed, those opposed to the seizure of records weighed in.
“This affidavit shows what we assumed all along: this raid is a politicization of federal law enforcement by an increasingly manic president who is chasing the same false election conspiracy theories that have been disproven over and over,” the Democratic Party of Georgia said in a statement.
Fulton County Commission Chairman Rob Pitts also held a news conference on Tuesday afternoon after the documents were unsealed, saying “We’re grateful now that the underlying accusation is now public knowledge. We now know, as I’ve said from day one, that the accusations are exactly what I’ve been talking about again from day one. Recycled rumors, lies, untruths and unproven conspiracy theories.”
In the wake of the records seizure in Fulton County, Georgia Republicans had a different position.
“A warrant was issued by a magistrate judge based on probable cause after evidence was submitted. Not a Trump-appointed judge, a magistrate judge,” state Sen. Greg Dolezal said previously.
“I welcome a thorough investigation, appreciate what the FBI is doing. I think Georgians have been waiting for a long time with lingering concerns and questions about election security. The only way to get those answers is through a transparent process,” state Sen. Blake Tillery told Channel 2’s Richard Elliot the day after the records were seized.
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