A federal judge has ruled the Justice Department can retain ballots and election materials seized by the FBI from Fulton county, Georgia last January, rejecting arguments from county lawyers that the seizure violated the Constitution.
U.S. District Judge JP Boulee issued the 68-page decision Wednesday after the heavily Democratic county sought the return of the materials taken from its elections hub near Atlanta on January 28. County attorneys contended the seizure was improper and unlawful.
Fulton county, which encompasses most of Atlanta and is Georgia's most populous county, became the focal point of false claims by Donald Trump and his allies that rampant fraud had altered the 2020 election outcome. Those claims have been repeatedly debunked and discredited.
The Justice Department has characterized its investigation as examining "irregularities that occurred during the 2020 presidential election in the county." Federal prosecutors identified two statutes they believe may have been violated: one governing the mandatory preservation of election records for 22 months, and another prohibiting the procurement, casting or tabulation of fraudulent ballots.
Georgia conducted a rigorous recount of its 2020 ballots, including a hand recount, with each verification confirming Joe Biden's victory in the state.
Boulee acknowledged in his ruling that "the seizure in this case was certainly not perfect" but found that Fulton county failed to demonstrate the government had disregarded its rights through lack of probable cause, deficiencies in the search warrant affidavit, or improper execution of the seizure itself.
The judge also rejected the county's claims that it would suffer irreparable harm from losing access to the materials or that it had a pressing need to retrieve them. Boulee noted that the Justice Department has already provided copies of all documents to the county.
Author James Rodriguez: "The ruling essentially closes the door on one avenue Fulton county hoped would rein in the federal investigation, but it hardly settles the larger question of what the Justice Department actually intends to do with a nearly four-year-old inquiry into an election that has already been exhaustively audited."
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