{"id":15990,"date":"2026-05-07T10:58:25","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T02:58:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=15990"},"modified":"2026-05-07T10:58:29","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T02:58:29","slug":"judge-says-justice-department-can-keep-the-2020-election-ballots-the-fbi-seized-from-fulton-county-ga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=15990","title":{"rendered":"Judge says Justice Department can keep the 2020 election ballots the FBI seized from Fulton County, Ga."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A federal judge Wednesday blocked the return of more than 600 boxes of 2020 general election ballots the FBI seized this year from an election hub in Fulton County, Georgia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. District Judge J.P. Boulee wrote in a 68-page order that there wasn\u2019t enough evidence to prove the rights of county officials were \u201ccallously disregarded\u201d \u2014 a legal standard in the case. He ruled that the county hadn\u2019t demonstrated a need for the ballots or that it would be irreparably harmed without them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, Boulee criticized how the FBI obtained the ballots in a state President Donald Trump has falsely claimed he won in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis Court acknowledges that the events leading up to this case are, in a variety of ways, unprecedented,\u201d Boulee wrote, later adding that \u201cthe seizure in this case was certainly not perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fulton County Board of Commissioners Chair Robb Pitts responded to the ruling by saying the county intends \u201cto pursue all available legal options.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI certainly agree with the court that the FBI warrant was \u2018defective\u2019 \u2018problematic\u2019 and \u2018troubling,\u2019 and that the events in this case are \u2018unprecedented,\u2019\u201d Pitts said in a statement. \u201cBut I strongly disagree with the judge\u2019s denial of Fulton County\u2019s request for the FBI to return the election records it wrongly seized on January 28.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2014\u2014 National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard at the election hub in Union City in January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The FBI has argued that it is investigating \u201cirregularities\u201d in the 2020 election in Fulton County. An affidavit that was part of the search warrant granted to seize the ballots said the seizure was focused on purported issues including missing ballot images and duplicate ballots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fulton County sued the federal government in February over the seizure. A leading elections expert told the court last month that the evidence the FBI used to justify its actions didn\u2019t \u201cmake sense,\u201d saying that the ballot irregularities the bureau identified didn\u2019t constitute a crime and that witnesses the federal government had based its investigations on seemed misinformed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under a grand jury subpoena made public Monday, the Justice Department is trying to force Fulton County to reveal the names and contact information of election staff members and volunteers who worked during the 2020 presidential election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the election, Trump asked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to \u201cfind 11,780 votes\u201d to overturn Joe Biden\u2019s victory in the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fulton County was also at the heart of an election interference case that involved charges against Trump, who denied any wrongdoing, and more than a dozen of his allies. The charges in that case were dropped by the prosecutor who took over the investigation after District Attorney Fani Willis was disqualified from the case over conflict-of-interest allegations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A federal judge Wednesday blocked the return of more than 600 boxes of 2020 general election ballots the FBI seized this year from an election hub in Fulton County, Georgia. U.S. District Judge J.P. Boulee wrote in a 68-page order that there wasn\u2019t enough evidence to prove the rights of county officials were \u201ccallously disregarded\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":15992,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2491,419,1708],"class_list":["post-15990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-county","tag-fbi","tag-judge"],"yoast_head":"\nJudge says Justice Department can keep the 2020 election ballots the FBI seized from Fulton County, Ga. - LISTEN WORLD<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=15990\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Judge says Justice Department can keep the 2020 election ballots the FBI seized from Fulton County, Ga. - LISTEN WORLD\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A federal judge Wednesday blocked the return of more than 600 boxes of 2020 general election ballots the FBI seized this year from an election hub in Fulton County, Georgia. 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