FBI Raid on Georgia Ballots Relied on Old Claims

Federal court papers show the FBI used old and rejected claims about the 2020 election to get a warrant for a raid on Fulton County's ballot storage in Georgia. The raid happened in January, when agents took nearly 700 boxes of ballots and records from the county's election center. A judge approved the action after the FBI said it had signs of crimes tied to the presidential vote that year.

Background

Fulton County runs elections for part of Atlanta and surrounding areas. In 2020, it counted votes during the tight presidential race between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Georgia went to Biden by a small margin, and Fulton County faced heavy checks after the election. The state did three counts of the ballots there: the first machine tally, a machine recount, and a hand recount. Officials also ran audits and let people watch the process.

Claims of problems popped up right after the election. People said workers scanned some ballots two times during the recount or threw out suits from drop boxes. Courts looked at these ideas many times and threw them out. Georgia's top elections official, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, said such stories had no base. The state election board checked them too and closed the cases.

The FBI probe started from a tip by Kurt Olsen. He worked briefly in the Trump White House on election issues. Olsen pushed hard against the 2020 results. He helped lead efforts to stop the vote count and talked to Trump on January 6, 2021. Courts later punished him for false claims in a case for Arizona's Kari Lake, who lost her governor race in 2022.

Another person named in the papers, Clay Parikh, also backed Lake and made similar claims. These two gave key info that the FBI put in its court request. The papers came out this week after a judge ordered it. Fulton County had fought to get its materials back, saying the claims were old rumors.

Key Details

The FBI agent who wrote the affidavit, Hugh Raymond Evans, listed issues like missing scans of some ballots. Fulton County counted over 500,000 ballots in 2020. The county said it did not keep digital images of all of them because state law at the time did not require it. Lawmakers added that rule months later, in March 2021.

The papers also noted some ballots got scanned more than once in the recount. County workers admitted that might have happened but said it did not change the final tallies. Experts say double scans can occur in recounts without fraud. No proof showed intent to cheat.

The affidavit says if these issues came from bad acts, they could break federal law. But it uses words like 'if' a lot and skips facts that show the election worked fine. For example, it does not mention the audits or court wins that backed the counts.

Witness Problems

Experts point out the FBI did not tell the judge about the backgrounds of its tipsters. Olsen and Parikh have records of pushing ideas courts rejected. Legal rules say agents must note facts that hurt their case, like bad sources.

Fulton County leaders said the raid took private ballots based on old lies. The county board chair called it recycled untruths.

"This affidavit is built almost entirely on a series of ‘ifs’ rather than concrete facts. It’s hard to see how the contents of this affidavit rise to the level of probable cause." – Joyce Vance, former U.S. attorney

What This Means

The release of these papers raises questions about how the FBI got the warrant. Legal watchers say it misses key details needed under the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unfair searches. Prosecutors must show real probable cause, not just maybes, and include info that cuts against their story.

Election workers worry this could chill their jobs. Taking records disrupts storage and checks for future votes. Groups that fight for voting rights say it looks like a push to question past results again. They fear it aims to change how elections run, making it harder for some to vote.

"Their intentions are clear. They want to dramatically remake our elections to curtail who is able to vote and whose votes are counted." – Lauren Groh-Wargo, CEO of Fair Fight Action

Georgia election board members say all the issues listed got looked at years ago. One Democratic member called it a travesty to use rejected experts. Even some Republicans in the state dismissed the claims.

The FBI has the materials now. Fulton County wants them back. Courts will decide if the raid holds up. This case shows how old election fights keep going into new years. It tests trust in federal probes of local votes. Officials from both parties stress that 2020 checks proved the tallies right. No big fraud changed Georgia's result.

Law professors note the affidavit picks facts to build a case but leaves out others that weaken it. One from Stanford said governments cannot hide info that kills probable cause. Former Justice Department workers say this would get sent back for fixes in normal cases.

Voting experts add there are no claims of stolen votes, outside meddling, or timed-out probes. At most, it points to mistakes during a pandemic that did not flip the outcome. The raid stands out because it took certified election items long after the vote.