Fulton Co. Democrats allege FBI lacked authority for election center raid

Two top Democrats in Fulton County, Georgia allege that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) lacked the authority for Wednesday’s raid of the county’s central election hub, in which the Feds seized 700 boxes of ballots and other election materials related to the 2020 vote. 

In an interview with Democracy Docket, District 4 Fulton County Commissioner Mo Ivory said the documents seized by federal agents Wednesday were sealed by Fulton County Judge Robert McBurney.

“There is a case right now concerning this, trying to get these documents,” Ivory said. “They’re under seal right now. Judge McBurney has not lifted the seal for them to be taken.”

In December, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) sued for access to Fulton County’s 2020 election ballots and other records from the 2020, after President Donald Trump resurfaced old conspiracy theories about the 2020 vote. The lawsuit came just a few months after Ed Martin, head of the DOJ’s weaponization task force, sent a letter to McBurney asking that he unseal the election records and let the department “immediately access” 148,000 absentee ballots being stored in a ballot warehouse.

Though the DOJ sued to access Fulton County’s 2020 election records, McBurney had not yet ruled to unseal the records. But if McBurney had ruled to unseal the records prior to the FBI’s Wednesday raid, then the legality of the warrant might not be in question. 

In a statement, a spokesperson for the FBI’s Atlanta office said that the bureau “has a court authorized document signed by a judge giving us the authority to access the records.”

District 2 Commissioner Marvin Arrington Sr. told Democracy Docket that he’s leading an effort to push Fulton County Attorney Soo Jo to pursue legal action against the FBI for improperly seizing election records. 

“I think we need to be in front of a judge right now… because the records are sealed,” Arrington Sr. said. “The records are under seal, and the judge has not issued an order unsealing the records.”

But beyond the legal questions of the FBI’s actions Wednesday, both Ivory and Arrington Sr. are concerned about the message the Trump administration is trying to send with its relentless pursuit of litigating 2020 election conspiracies. 

“I don’t know that we can believe anything that this Trump administration is saying at this time,” Arrington Sr. said. “We see what they said about Renée Good. We see what they said about Alex Pretti. This is just another attempt for them to bully us. This is another attempt at retribution.”

Ivory added that she worries the investigation into the 2020 vote in Fulton County could intimidate voters in the upcoming midterm election. 

“My concern is that people do not want to die trying to vote. That’s long over. And should be,” Ivory said. “But when you scare people — like when you have ICE agents killing citizens in Minnesota — those kinds of things intimidate. This is what it’s meant to do. It’s meant to sow fear. Even if it does it slowly — first seniors are afraid to go to the polls. And then, if you make an election a militarized zone, then people, of course, are going to be afraid to go. People who normally would stand up to exercise their free and fair right to vote get afraid to do that. And that’s exactly what [Trump] hopes will happen.”