Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents, armed with a search warrant for 2020 presidential election records, reportedly hauled away 700 boxes from the Fulton County Election warehouse. Greg Bluestein, chief political reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, posted a copy of the warrant on his X page. Physical ballots, tabulator tapes, ballot images, and voter rolls from the 2020 presidential election were named on the warrant as the property to be seized.
The search comes on the heels of the Civil Rights Division of the US Department of Justice filing a lawsuit last month against Fulton County Clerk of Court Che Alexander for records related to the 2020 election. The Justice Department filed a similar lawsuit against Republican Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, which was dismissed by a federal judge, without prejudice – for lack of jurisdiction – five days before the FBI search.
Fulton County Chaos
In September, the Justice Department issued a subpoena for the travel records of Fani Willis, the embattled Democrat Fulton County district attorney who criminally charged President Donald Trump and 18 co-defendants, accusing them of interference in the 2020 presidential election.
Finally, the prosecutor who took over Willis’ case against Trump in November declined to prosecute it, putting an end to the unprecedented 27-month criminal prosecution of a president, which played into his 2024 campaign to return to the White House.
2020
On November 4, 2020, the morning after the election, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told CNN:
“We have about 2% left to go. And you can see where are right now with the results that have been reported. I don’t think they’ll change any of the outcomes…When you look at how many votes are out there, even if one of the candidates got 100%, it probably wouldn’t be enough to move it one way or the other.”
The graphic that appeared in boxes on the screen with Raffensperger portrayed Trump was winning by 103,705 votes at 50.5% to Joe Biden’s 48.3%.
Raffensperger is now running for governor of Georgia in a crowded field of Republicans and Democrats. Lt. Governor Burt Jones is running against Raffensperger in the Republican primary. In reaction to the FBI search on Thursday, Jones wrote on X:
“Fulton County Elections couldn’t run a bake sale. And unfortunately, our Secretary of State hasn’t fixed the corruption and our Attorney General hasn’t prosecuted it. Today is an important step toward accountability.”
Tulsi Gabbard’s Presence
Two things have raised the ire of leftists and lawmakers: the presence of US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard with FBI agents and a US attorney in Missouri, rather than Georgia, overseeing the warrant.
In the first of a series of rants on X, Sen. Mark Warner, (D-VA), Vice Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, wrote: “Either is a serious breach of trust that further underscores why she is totally unqualified to hold a position that demands sound judgment, apolitical independence, and a singular focus on keeping Americans safe.”
On Thursday, Warner and fellow Democrat and Ranking Member on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Jim Himes, wrote Gabbard a letter saying:
“We request that you appear before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence immediately to address the following: 1. Your reasoning for attending the FBI operation in Fulton County and what role you or any other IC employee has played in the conduct of this operation; 2. Under what legal authorities you or any other IC employee was involved in this operation; and 3. An update on any intelligence in your possession concerning foreign interference in U.S. elections, including the 2020 election and subsequent election cycles, and information on any analysis or activity IC personnel are conducting, or have conducted in the past year, related to the 2020 election.”
“ doesn’t work for the Department of Justice or the FBI. She’s an extraordinarily important part of this administration,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, responding to reporter’s question about Gabbard being on site at the FBI search, said. “This administration coordinates everything we do as a group. And so, I think her presence shouldn’t be, there shouldn’t be questions. Of course, that’s a big part of her job. And so, the fact that she was present in Atlanta that day, you know, is something that shouldn’t surprise anybody.”
As for the US attorney overseeing the search warrant the FBI executed on Fulton County’s election office, Thomas Albus was reportedly specially appointed by US Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate election integrity cases nationwide, according to Bloomberg Law.
Georgia State Senators Called for Special Session in 2020
Three weeks after the 2020 presidential election, four Georgia State Republican senators, Greg Dolezal, William Ligon, Brandon Beach, and then-Sen. Burt Jones, called on Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, and the general assembly to call a special session. They wanted to “address structural issues with Georgia’s voting system before the January runoff…address directives from the Secretary of State and the State Election Board that attempt to replace the conditions of Georgia law,” and hear evidence of voter fraud from the Government Oversight Committee hearings.
Dolezal, now running for Lt. Governor, is continuing his call on the Fulton County registrar to clean up Georgia’s voter rolls. On Friday, he posted a video montage on X of himself in front of the UPS Store, an abandoned house, and a homeless shelter that closed in 2017, to demonstrate where dozens of people were registered to vote. “The Fulton County registrar – this is their job,” he said. “They are the ones that are supposed to keep the voter rolls clean. And like I’ve said before, and Fani Willis got mad when I said it, it’s always Fulton County. And Fulton County has got to get their act cleaned up.”
Paul Brown, FBI Special Agent-in-Charge of the Atlanta Field Office reportedly retired last week just days ahead of the agency’s search of the Fulton County Election Hub. Despite media speculation in the media, it is unclear if Brown’s retirement is related.
Trump’s Hints
President Trump hinted to an investigation when he briefed the White House press corps on the one-year anniversary of his second term. After showing several mugshots of convicted criminal illegal aliens, whom ICE agents had arrested in Minnesota, the president said:
“All allowed in here by an open border policy of the worst president in the history of our country, a man that didn’t win the election, by the way. It was a rigged election. Everybody knows that now. And by the way, numbers are coming out that show it even more plainly. We caught them. We caught them.”
The following day, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Trump dropped another hint of impending prosecutions, woven into a reference to the war in Ukraine.
“It’s a war that should have never started and it wouldn’t have started, if the 2020 US presidential election weren’t rigged,” Trump said. “It was a rigged election. Everybody now knows that. They found out. People will soon be prosecuted for what they did.”
Pundits on both sides of the aisle are on high alert for the next move.
