The FBI raided a Georgia election office on Wednesday as it examined allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 US election.
In a statement to Reuters, the FBI said it was conducting a “court-authorised law enforcement activity” at the Fulton County Election Hub. Fulton County officials said that the government’s warrant “sought a number of records related to 2020 elections”.
Donald Trump lost the state and the county – the most populated in Georgia – to Joe Biden in the 2020 election and has long said his loss was due to fraud, a claim that is unsubstantiated.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) sued Fulton County officials in December, seeking election-related materials from 2020.
The FBI and Fulton County did not immediately respond to the BBC’s requests for comment.
Agents with FBI vests were seen entering and exiting the election office on Wednesday, with some appearing to load materials into a truck.
Some local officials expressed anger at the raid.
“This is an assault on your vote,” Fulton County Commissioner Mo Ivory said at a press conference outside the election facility.
“We are all trying to figure out what to do about this,” she said.
The 2020 election marked the first time since 1992 that a Democrat had won the southern US state of Georgia. Bill Clinton was the last before Biden’s win there.
Georgia’s very tight elections results in 2020 came after most other states had already been called for each candidate.
Joe Biden had been dubbed the presidential contest winner days before Georgia was forced to do a recount by hand due to the close margin. The state was ultimately won by Biden by a slim threshold of a little more than 12,000 votes.
According to the December lawsuit, the DOJ was seeking access to “all used and void ballots, stubs of all ballots, signature envelopes, and corresponding envelope digital files from the 2020 General Election in Fulton County”.
The state of Georgia, and Fulton County in particular, were a major focus of Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, which included multiple lawsuits and claims of widespread voter fraud in states that he lost.
Numerous courts rejected legal challenges and claims made by Trump and his allies.
Following the 2020 election results, Trump called Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and told him, “I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state.”
Raffensperger, whose office oversees Georgia’s elections and certifies results, confirmed that Biden won the state after multiple reviews.
The Georgia Secretary of State’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump faced two criminal indictments related to alleged election interference in Georgia; a federal case that ended after Trump returned to the White House in 2025, and a Georgia state racketeering case that fell apart due to prosecutorial error and was eventually dismissed.
By BBC News
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