ATLANTA — Officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided the Fulton County elections warehouse Wednesday.
A court order signed by Magistrate Judge Catherine M. Salinas authorized agents to seize all physical ballots from the 2020 election in Fulton County, all ballot images and Fulton County’s 2020 voter rolls. A copy of the order was given to the Recorder by a Georgia lawmaker.
The Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center is located in Union City, just south of Atlanta.
“We are aware of the ongoing law enforcement activity involving the FBI at the Fulton County warehouse,” said Cae’Lenthya Moore, the executive assistant to Fulton County Clerk Ché Alexander. “At this time, we are only aware of activities involving the warehouse location.”
Officials at the FBI’s field office in Atlanta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In December, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Fulton County for refusing to turn over voter records from the 2020 election. Alexander previously denied Justice Department officials’ request for the data, according to the lawsuit, stating that the records were under seal and could not be released without a court order. She later filed a motion to dismiss the complaint.
The Justice Department has also filed a lawsuit against Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger seeking Georgia’s unredacted voter data.
President Donald Trump has long claimed — without evidence — that the 2020 election was stolen in Georgia and other swing states, blaming his loss on unfounded accusations of rampant voting fraud, even though two recounts affirmed former President Joe Biden’s victory in Georgia. Last week, in a speech before the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Trump once again claimed that the 2020 election was rigged and said that the individuals involved “will soon be prosecuted for what they did.”
Deputy Editor Ross Williams contributed to this story.
This is a developing story, and will be updated.
Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.