Key court documents related to the FBI’s search at Fulton County’s election offices in Georgia were unsealed on Tuesday.
U.S. District Judge J. P. Boulee — a Trump appointee — directed the Department of Justice on Saturday to publicly release the search warrant affidavit and the broader court docket in the case. In the order, Boulee allowed limited redactions, including hiding the names of “nongovernmental witnesses” to protect privacy.
The unsealing of the records follows legal filings by county officials demanding transparency from the DOJ after FBI agents executed a search warrant on Jan. 28 at the Election Hub and Operation Center in Union City near Atlanta, seeking material on the 2020 presidential election.
FBI agents seized hundreds of boxes of materials related to the 2020 vote, including ballots, tabulator tapes, electronic ballot images and voter rolls.
Fulton County leaders, including Commission Chairman Robb Pitts, filed multiple motions in federal court last week, not only seeking to unseal the warrant and affidavit but also to regain possession of the seized election materials. In their filings, officials argued the government’s actions could undermine public confidence in elections and violated constitutional protections. They also reiterated that they received no advance notice of the unannounced search.
The search was an unprecedented federal action in Georgia targeting records from the 2020 election, which President Donald Trump continues to falsely claim was stolen. Multiple reviews show that then-Vice President Joe Biden won the presidency and that there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud.
Fulton County has repeatedly maintained that its elections have been conducted lawfully and efficiently.
The FBI’s seizure in Fulton has become a flashpoint in broader national debates over election integrity, federal power and political influence. Critics say the investigation risks fueling misinformation about the 2020 election and could be seen as an intimidation tactic by the Trump administration. In a separate ruling on Monday, Fulton County Judge Robert McBurney dismissed a lawsuit seeking access to the 2020 election ballots. The lawsuit was previously filed in state court by Garland Favorito, a Georgia election integrity advocate and head of the group VoterGA. He argued that the public has a legal right to inspect the physical ballots and related election materials, citing concerns about transparency and election administration. McBurney ruled that that the court could not order access to ballots that were no longer under county control due to the federal seizure. “The Court can grant Petitioner no relief because it cannot order the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections to produce what it no longer has,” McBurney wrote in the filing. “Petition’s redress lies elsewhere: perhaps the Eastern District of Missouri or maybe the Southern District of Florida. His guess is as good as the Court’s.”
Ebony Davis is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW based in Washington, DC. Recommended
