By Jana Winter and Andrew Goudsward
WASHINGTON, Jan 28 (Reuters) – The FBI searched an election office in Georgia’s Fulton County outside Atlanta on Wednesday, pursuing U.S. President Donald Trump’s false claims that his 2020 election defeat was the result of widespread voting fraud.
The FBI said in a brief statement that its agents executed a warrant at the Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center in Union City, a large, warehouse-like facility opened by Georgia officials in 2023, and called it a “court-authorized law enforcement activity.”
The search concluded on Wednesday night, a law enforcement official said.
The warrant “sought a number of records related to 2020 elections,” the Fulton County government said in a brief statement about the search, the latest in a string of actions by Trump’s administration to use the Justice Department against his perceived enemies or to intervene in cases where he believes he was treated unfairly.
The FBI agents were looking to seize computers and ballots they believed were held at the facility as part of an investigation into possible election interference, a law enforcement official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Joe Biden, a Democrat, won Georgia and defeated Trump, a Republican who was seeking reelection in 2020. Trump returned to the presidency for a second term last year after winning the 2024 election.
‘TRYING TO CREATE CHAOS’
Fulton County Commissioner Mo Ivory confirmed a warrant was being served and said federal officials were collecting 700 boxes of ballots from a secure location. In a video posted to social media made from inside the election center, she accused Trump of “trying to create chaos” in order to benefit Republicans in the November midterm elections.
In separate comments to reporters, Ivory called the federal intrusion “an assault on voters” and said local officials were considering what legal recourse they might have to stop it.
“We know in America right now it does not even matter if what you are saying is the right thing. If our president wants to bring in the forces, he will,” Ivory told reporters.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard visited the site of the search on Wednesday, Reuters witnessed, giving her a highly unusual presence in domestic law enforcement that one former official called unprecedented. Reuters reported that Gabbard last year formed a group of dozens of officials from across the federal government, including the Justice Department, that was helping to steer Trump’s drive for retribution against his perceived enemies.
“She is once again demonstrating her utter lack of fitness for office that she holds by injecting the non-partisan intelligence community she is supposed to be leading into a domestic political stunt,” said Democratic Senator Mark Warner, vice-chairman of the Senate intelligence committee.
“She is totally unqualified to hold a position that demands sound judgment, apolitical independence, and a singular focus on keeping Americans safe.”
The search was conducted a week after Trump reiterated during comments in Davos, Switzerland, his longstanding and debunked claim that the 2020 voting “was a rigged election.”
“People will soon be prosecuted for what they did,” Trump said in Davos.
The Trump administration separately began a lawsuit last month to get hold of Fulton County’s 2020 ballots. In the suit, the administration said that the ballots and other records being sought were in the custody of the Fulton County Superior Court in Atlanta.
The administration has asked a federal judge to order Che Alexander, Fulton County’s court clerk, to hand over “physical ballots, stubs and absentee ballot envelopes for the 2020 General Election.”
Alexander this month asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit, noting that the ballots she holds are under seal under state law, and that the administration should instead ask the county Superior Court for an order to unseal them. Alexander did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Democratic-leaning Fulton County is home to Atlanta, Georgia’s biggest city, and backed Biden by a wide margin in the 2020 election.
PRESSURE FROM TRUMP
Trump unsuccessfully sought to overturn the 2020 election result, pressuring Georgia’s top election official to “find” votes that would allow him to claim victory. Several reviews and a hand audit of ballots confirmed that Biden narrowly won the state.
Trump this month asked a Georgia state court for $6.2 million in legal fees he said he spent fighting criminal charges of election interference filed by Fulton County’s chief prosecutor, District Attorney Fani Willis.
The prosecution of Trump by Willis for alleged racketeering foundered after revelations that she had a romantic relationship with one of the lawyers she hired, and the case was dismissed last year.
Under Trump, the Justice Department has also sued several states besides Georgia, demanding that they turn over large volumes of voter data. States have challenged the demands as an unconstitutional infringement on their authority to manage elections. A few judges have tossed out the lawsuits, most recently this week in Oregon.
A succession of people who have criticized Trump or resisted his agenda have found themselves investigated by the Justice Department, led by Trump appointee Pam Bondi, in the past year.
The department unsuccessfully tried to prosecute former FBI Director James Comey and New York state Attorney General Letitia James, who both led previous investigations into Trump.
(Reporting by Jana Winter and Andrew Goudsward, additional reporting by Monica Naime, Jonathan Landay, Costas Pitas, Bhargav Acharya, Susan Heavey, Jasper Ward and Andy Sullivan; writing by Jonathan Allen and Daniel Trotta; editing by Scott Malone, Will Dunham and Deepa Babington)
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