Fulton County To Sue Over Election Raid Involving FBI Agents, Tulsi Gabbard

Fulton County officials will file a federal lawsuit against the FBI and Justice Department following an unusual seizure of 2020 election records — an operation that reportedly involved direct, on-site intervention from Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard.Fulton County Commissioner Marvin Arrington Jr. on Monday announced the legal action in response to a search warrant executed last week at the Fulton County Elections Hub and Operations Center in Union City. Agents seized hundreds of boxes containing ballots, voter rolls, and ballot images from the 2020 presidential election.“I’ve asked the county attorney to take any and all steps available to fight this criminal search warrant,” Mr. Arrington said in a statement.The lawsuit argues that while a court order allowed the FBI to copy records, agents improperly took physical custody of original documents. “They got copies of our voter rolls and all the original ballots,” Mr. Arrington said. “Now we cannot verify that we’ve received everything back because there was no chain-of-custody inventory taken at the time the records were seized.”“The search warrant, I believe, is not proper, but I think that there are ways that we can limit it. We want to ask for forensic accounting, we want the documents to stay in the State of Georgia under seal, and we want to do whatever we can to protect voter information,” the commissioner said.FBI Director Kash Patel defended the bureau’s actions in an interview on Fox News. “The FBI and the DOJ went in and collected numerous pieces of evidence that the judge authorized us to collect, and what we’re going to do next is go through the voluminous amounts of information collected and continue our investigation,” Mr. Patel said. “At this point, there’s not much more I can say publicly.”The raid centers on allegations regarding the 2020 election, which President Trump has repeatedly claimed was stolen despite years of investigation and court cases stating otherwise.The investigation follows the recent dismissal of state charges against Mr. Trump and his allies brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. That case was dropped by the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia shortly before Thanksgiving.Fulton County Board of Commissioners Chairman Robb Pitts, who noted he was unaware of the raid before it occurred, maintained that the county’s elections process is secure and accurate. County attorneys are expected to file their motion in the Northern District of Georgia.While county officials challenge the legality of the warrant, new details have emerged regarding the involvement of high-ranking administration officials in the raid.According to reports, Ms. Gabbard met behind closed doors with the FBI agents conducting the raid at the bureau’s Atlanta field office. During the meeting, Ms. Gabbard reportedly called Mr. Trump on her cellphone and placed him on speakerphone, the New York Times reported.Sources with knowledge of the meeting described the call as a “pep rally,” during which the president praised and thanked the agents for their work. A federal official confirmed that Mr. Trump personally ordered Ms. Gabbard to Atlanta to coordinate with FBI Deputy Director Andrew Bailey, the Times reported.

Fulton County To Sue Over Election Raid Involving FBI Agents, Tulsi Gabbard

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