The affidavit supporting an FBI search of Fulton County’s election offices was unsealed on Tuesday.
U.S. District Judge J.P. Boulee, a Trump appointee, ordered the unsealing of documents pertaining to the government’s seizure of ballots and other materials related to the 2020 election in January.
Some allegations of impropriety relating to the voting process in 2020 “have been disproven while some of those allegations have been substantiated, including through admissions by Fulton County,” FBI Special Agent Hugh Raymond Evans wrote in an affidavit.
“This warrant application is part of an FBI criminal investigation into whether any of the improprieties were intentional acts that violated federal criminal laws,” Evans wrote.
The investigation stems from former Trump campaign lawyer Kurt Olsen’s referral, according to the affidavit. Olsen joined the administration in October.
The FBI’s warrant permitted seizure of all physical ballots, tabulator tapes, ballot images and voter rolls from the 2020 General Election in Fulton County.
Evans suggested in the affidavit there is probable cause to believe “unknown persons” may have violated federal law that “requires election officers to retain election records for 22 months following an election for a federal office” and makes it a crime to ““knowingly and willfully deprive[ ] … the residents of a State of a fair and impartially conducted election process.”
“If these deficiencies were the result of intentional action, it would be a violation of federal law regardless of whether the failure to retain records or the deprivation of a fair tabulation of a vote was outcome determinative for any particular election or race,” the affidavit states.
Among the “deficiencies or defects” with vote tabulation being investigated, Evans noted the county “has admitted that it does not have scanned images of all the 528,777 ballots counted during the Original Count or the 527,925 ballots counted during the Recount.”
“Claims that the 2020 election results were fraudulent or otherwise invalid have been exhaustively reviewed and, without exception, refuted,” county attorney Y. Soo Jo wrote in a Feb. 5 memo seeking the return of seized property. “Eleven different post-election lawsuits, challenging various aspects of Georgia’s election process, failed to demonstrate fraud.”
Fulton County “stated that tabulator tapes accounting for 315,000 ballots were not properly signed” during a Dec. 9, 2025 meeting, the affidavit also notes. County attorney Ann Brumbaugh said they did “not dispute that the tapes were not signed” at the meeting, according to Atlanta News First.
“Georgia has the most secure elections in the country and all voters were verified with photo ID and lawfully cast their ballots,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger wrote on X in December. “A clerical error at the end of the day does not erase valid, legal votes.”
Trump is now seeking over $6.2 million in legal fees since the election interference case brought against him by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who was disqualified from pursuing the case, was dismissed in November.
Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to provide more details on the government’s argument to seize the ballots.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact [email protected].
