A legal fight is brewing in Georgia after Fulton County officials moved swiftly to reclaim thousands of election records taken by federal agents during a surprise search tied to the 2020 vote.
According to Fox News, county attorneys filed a sealed motion Tuesday asking a federal judge to order the return of hundreds of boxes of original election materials that were seized last week from a warehouse connected to the county’s election operations.
The filing states that Fulton County is seeking the immediate return of roughly 656 boxes containing original ballots and other sensitive records from the 2020 general election.
The motion also asks the court to block the federal government from reviewing or using any of the seized materials while the dispute is pending.
“This morning’s filing could not have come fast enough; justice delayed is justice denied,” Fulton County Commissioner Marvin Arrington said in a statement. “The people of Fulton County deserve justice now, and that’s why I pushed so hard to get this motion filed as soon as possible.”
The FBI executed the search warrant on Jan. 28 at Fulton County’s main election facility in Union City, just outside Atlanta. The search focused squarely on records associated with the 2020 election.
A warrant cover sheet provided to county officials listed the materials agents were seeking, including all ballots from the election, tabulator tapes generated by voting machines, electronic ballot images produced during the initial count and recounts, and voter rolls.
Fulton County, which is heavily Democratic, has been under intense scrutiny since President Donald Trump lost Georgia in the 2020 election to then-candidate Joe Biden. Trump has repeatedly argued that widespread voter fraud affected the outcome in the state.
County Commission Chairman Robb Pitts pushed back on those claims, defending Fulton County’s election procedures.
“The president himself and his allies, they refuse to accept the fact that they lost,” Pitts said Wednesday. “And even if he had won Georgia, he would still have lost the presidency.”
Pitts said the county has conducted 17 elections since 2020 without any problems, insisting the systems and procedures have held up under repeated testing and review.
“This case is not only about Fulton County. This is about elections across Georgia and across the nation,” Pitts said, pointing to recent comments by Trump on a podcast calling for Republicans to “take over” and “nationalize” elections. White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt later said the president was referring to legislative efforts.
Last month, Trump reignited controversy while speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he suggested prosecutions related to the 2020 election could be coming.
“People will soon be prosecuted for what they did,” Trump said.
The Justice Department has not commented on the motion. The FBI declined to discuss the search or the ongoing investigation.
