By Andrew Goudsward
WASHINGTON, May 6 (Reuters) – A U.S. judge on Wednesday ruled that the Justice Department can keep 2020 election ballots seized during an FBI search in January, a win for President Donald Trump’s administration as it pursues the president’s false claims of widespread voter fraud.
Atlanta-based U.S. District Judge J.P. Boulee rejected Fulton County’s request for the return of original copies of the seized material. Lawyers for the county had argued that the FBI’s search of the county’s election hub relied on faulty and discredited evidence and violated protections under the U.S. Constitution.
Boulee determined there were flaws in an FBI affidavit used to secure a judge’s permission for the search, but concluded that those shortcomings did not amount to “callous disregard” for the county’s rights, the legal standard required to have the records returned.
“While the Affidavit was certainly far from perfect, this is not a situation where an officer left out all the facts that might undermine probable cause or where an officer intentionally lied,” Boulee wrote in a 68-page ruling.
Fulton County intends to “vigorously” pursue all available legal options, the county’s chairman, Robb Pitts, said in a statement, while adding that he disagreed with the judge’s ruling.
Spokespeople for the FBI and the Justice Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The ruling is a rare court victory for Trump’s Justice Department in investigations that Trump has demanded. It will allow the FBI to keep possession of more than 600 boxes of 2020 ballots as it pursues a criminal investigation into whether election records were not properly retained or whether residents in Fulton County, which includes most of Atlanta, were defrauded out of a fair election.
But the investigation still faces significant obstacles. DOJ lawyers have not identified any individual targets of the probe and have not disputed claims that the statute of limitations appears to have expired on both crimes prosecutors have said they are investigating.
DISPUTE CLOSELY WATCHED AHEAD OF NOVEMBER ELECTIONS
The dispute was closely watched by election officials and experts across the country as Trump continues to threaten a potential federal government takeover of some local elections and sows doubts about voting ahead of the November elections.
Trump has continued to falsely claim that his defeat in the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden was the result of widespread fraud and has deployed U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies to re-investigate claims about the collection and tallying of votes.
Justice Department lawyers argued that Fulton County had not met the stringent legal standard necessary to secure the return of material seized during a court-approved search.
During the search, which was approved by a federal magistrate judge, FBI agents seized original 2020 ballots and other records from the county’s election center in Union City, Georgia. Authorities cited alleged “deficiencies or defects” with the 2020 vote, including claims that some digital images of ballots were missing and some absentee ballots did not appear to have been folded as required.
The investigation began with a referral from Kurt Olsen, a lawyer who aided Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election and has since been tasked by the White House with re-examining the vote. Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s director of national intelligence, attended the search in an unusual move for an official whose focus is on foreign threats to the United States.
Fulton County, a Democratic stronghold in a state that has become hotly contested in presidential elections, became the center of conspiracy theories and fraud claims spread by Trump and his allies following the 2020 election.
Biden’s wide margin in Fulton County was key to flipping Georgia in Democrats’ favor. The state swung back to Trump in 2024.
Lawyers for Fulton County argued that the FBI affidavit used to justify the search omitted crucial context showing that many of its claims had previously been investigated and found to be either unfounded or mistakes that were not the result of intentional misconduct.
During a March court hearing in Atlanta, an election expert who advised the county on the 2020 election testified that much of the evidence cited in the affidavit appears to show a misunderstanding of how elections are conducted.
(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward; Additional reporting by Jasper Ward; Editing by Michael Learmonth)
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