A newly unsealed affidavit related to last month’s FBI raid on the Fulton County elections hub in Georgia is part of a federal investigation into potential "deficiencies or defects" tied to the 2020 presidential election — which Donald Trump lost to Joe Biden.
"If these deficiencies were the result of intentional action, it would be a violation of federal law regardless of whether the failure to retain records or the deprivation of a fair tabulation of a vote was outcome determinative for any particular election or race," the affidavit states.
RELATED STORY | Democratic governors accuse Trump of 'openly talking about rigging' elections
According to the affidavit unsealed Tuesday, investigators are examining problems in Fulton County's election process, noting that officials admitted they do not have complete scanned records of every ballot from either the initial tally or the recount.
A search warrant obtained by Scripps News authorized FBI agents to seize and review a broad range of 2020 election materials from the Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center, including physical ballots, voting machine tabulator tapes, and voter rolls from that election.
Trump has long alleged widespread voter fraud in Georgia, a state he narrowly lost to Biden in 2020. State and federal officials have repeatedly said there was no evidence of fraud that could have changed the outcome.
RELATED STORY | Georgia officials challenge legality of FBI raid on Fulton County election offices
Fulton County Board of Commissioners Chairman Robb Pitts said at a Tuesday press conference that the FBI investigation is based on "recycled rumors, lies, untruths, and unproven conspiracy theories."
"Fulton County's 2020 elections have been examined, they've been reexamined, they've been audited, there have been hand counts under microscope, and in every instance we come up clean. And any honest review going forward will also be clean," Pitts said. "These accusations have already been debunked. But here we go again."
WATCH | Chairman Pitts on the FBI investigation into Fulton County election offices
In 2023, Fulton County prosecutors charged Trump and several of his allies over alleged efforts to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results. A court later barred District Attorney Fani Willis and her office from continuing the prosecution, citing concerns about the appearance of impropriety. A successor declined to pursue the case, and a judge dismissed it late last year.
Last month, referring to the 2020 election, Trump said, “People will soon be prosecuted for what they did.” It was unclear exactly whom he was referencing.
Trump has also said that Republicans should "take over the voting" in at least "15 places." He repeated claims from after the 2020 election that he won states where official totals showed he lost, calling those states “crooked.”
