The affidavit says the FBI searched Fulton County offices to investigate possible “defects” in the 2020 election.
ATLANTA (AP) — The FBI has obtained a search warrant to seize hundreds of ballot boxes from election offices in Fulton County, Georgia, as part of a criminal investigation into possible “deficiencies or defects” in the counting of votes in the 2020 contest that President Donald Trump lost, according to an affidavit unsealed Tuesday.
The affidavit provides the first public justification for an FBI search last month that targeted a county that Trump and his allies have long viewed as central to their false claim that the 2020 election was stolen.
Read more: Fulton County asks court to return 2020 election documents seized by the FBI
But the claims outlined in the affidavit are largely based on allegations long made by people asserting fraud in the 2020 election. Audits, state officials, the courts and Trump’s former attorney general have rejected the idea that there was widespread fraud in the 2020 election that could have changed the outcome.
Among the “deficiencies or defects” investigators are examining is Fulton County’s admission that it did not have scanned images of all ballots counted during the original count or recount, according to the affidavit. Fulton County also confirmed that some ballots were scanned multiple times during the recount, the affidavit says.
“If these deficiencies were the result of an intentional act, they would be a violation of federal law regardless of whether the failure to maintain records or the denial of a fair tabulation of votes would have been a decisive outcome for any particular election or race,” the document says.
The affidavit says the seizure of election records was necessary to determine whether election records had been destroyed and/or the vote tabulation included materially false votes.” The affidavit cites potential violations of the law relating to the preservation and retention of election records, a misdemeanor. It also cites a law that makes it a crime to “knowingly and willfully” deprive residents of a “fair and impartial election process,” a felony.
