FBI agents searched Fulton County’s main elections office Wednesday as the agency under Director Kash Patel pursues political grievances tied to President Donald Trump.
What’s Happening: An FBI spokesperson confirmed agents were executing a court-authorized law enforcement action at the county’s election office in Union City,. The spokesperson wouldn’t say anything more, citing an ongoing matter.
What’s Important: The search comes as Trump keeps claiming the 2020 election was stolen, even though judges across the country and his own attorney general found no evidence of widespread problems that would have changed the outcome in Joe Biden’s favor.
The Background: Trump has long targeted Georgia, one of the battleground states he lost in 2020, for his election complaints. He famously asked the state’s then-secretary of state to “find” him enough votes to overturn the contest.
Last week, Trump said “people will soon be prosecuted for what they did” when talking about the 2020 election. He didn’t explain what he meant.
The Fulton County Connection: Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis got an indictment against Trump and 18 others in August 2023. She accused them of participating in a wide-ranging scheme to illegally overturn the 2020 presidential election results. Courts threw out that case in November after blocking Willis and her office from continuing because of an “appearance of impropriety” from a romantic relationship she had with a prosecutor she put in charge of the case.
The county has also been caught up in controversy over paperwork failures involving vote tabulator tapes tied to about 315,000 early votes cast in the 2020 election. County officials said the votes themselves were properly cast and counted, but workers didn’t follow documentation rules.
The Justice Department wouldn’t comment on Wednesday’s search.
ON THE 2020 ELECTION:
“People who were surprised by Fulton County’s 2020 performance must not know Fulton very well. Around here, ‘election night’ and ‘Fulton County’ go together like ‘barbecue’ and ‘milk.’
