{"id":1403869,"date":"2026-02-04T10:00:26","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T15:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thenewsherald.com\/?p=1403869&preview=true&preview_id=1403869"},"modified":"2026-02-04T13:32:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T18:32:15","slug":"georgia-election-investigation-fbi-documents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thenewsherald.com\/2026\/02\/04\/georgia-election-investigation-fbi-documents\/","title":{"rendered":"Georgia\u2019s Fulton County seeks the return of 2020 election documents seized by the FBI"},"content":{"rendered":"

By KATE BRUMBACK and NICHOLAS RICCARDI, Associated Press<\/strong><\/p>\n

ATLANTA (AP) \u2014 Officials in Georgia’s Fulton County said Wednesday they have asked a federal court to order the FBI to return ballots and other documents from the 2020 election that it\u00a0seized last week<\/a>, escalating a voting battle as President Donald Trump says he wants to \u201ctake over\u201d elections from Democratic-run areas with the November midterms on the horizon.<\/p>\n

The FBI had searched a warehouse near Atlanta where those records were stored, a move taken after Trump’s persistent demands for retribution over claims, without evidence, that fraud cost him victory in Georgia. Trump’s election comment came in an interview Monday with a conservative podcaster and the Republican president reaffirmed his position in Oval Office remarks the next day, citing fraud allegations that numerous audits, investigations and courts have debunked.<\/p>\n

Officials in heavily Democratic Fulton County referenced those statements in announcing their legal action at a time of increasing anxiety over Trump’s plans for the fall elections that will determine control of Congress.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis case is not only about Fulton County,” said the county chairman, Robb Pitts. \u201cThis is about elections across Georgia and across the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FBI
FBI Deputy Director Andrew Bailey, right, stands with members of the FBI at the Fulton County Elction HUB, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, in Union City, Ga., near Atlanta. (AP Photo\/Mike Stewart)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In a sign of that broader concern, U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said this week that “the notional idea that he will ask his loyalists to do something inappropriate, beyond the Constitution, scares the heck out of me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The White House has\u00a0scoffed at such fears<\/a>, noting that Trump did not intervene in the 2025 off-year elections despite some Democratic predictions he would. But the president’s party usually loses ground in midterm elections and Trump has already\u00a0tried to tilt<\/a>\u00a0the fall races in his direction.<\/p>\n

Democratic state election officials\u00a0have reacted<\/a>\u00a0to Trump\u2019s statements, the seizure of the Georgia election materials and his aggressive deployment of federal officers into Democratic-leaning cities by planning for a wide range of possible scenarios this fall. That includes how they would respond if Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were stationed outside polling places.<\/p>\n

They also have raised concerns about U.S. Department of Justice lawsuits, mostly targeting Democratic states,\u00a0seeking detailed voter data<\/a>\u00a0that includes dates of birth and partial Social Security numbers. Secretaries of state have raised concerns that the administration is building a database it can use to potentially disenfranchise voters in future elections.<\/p>\n

Trump and his allies have long fixated on Fulton County, Georgia\u2019s most populous, since he narrowly lost the state to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020. In the weeks after that election, Trump called Georgia’s secretary of state, Republican Brad Raffensperger, urged him to\u00a0help \u201cfind\u201d the 11,780 ballots<\/a>\u00a0that would enable Trump to be declared the Georgia winner of the state and raised the prospect of a \u201ccriminal offense\u201d if the official failed to comply.<\/p>\n

Raffensperger did not change the vote tally, and Biden won Georgia’s 16 electoral votes. Days later, rioters swarmed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and tried to prevent the official certification of Biden’s victory. When Trump returned to the presidency in January 2025, he pardoned more than 1,000 charged in that siege.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe president himself and his allies, they refuse to accept the fact that they lost,\u201d Pitts said. \u201cAnd even if he had won Georgia, he would still have lost the presidency.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pitts defended the county\u2019s election practices and said Fulton has conducted 17 elections since 2020 without any issues.<\/p>\n