FBI cited debunked claims to obtain warrant for Fulton County vote records, documents show [View all]

Source: Washington Post

February 10, 2026 at 5:40 p.m. EST


The FBI relied heavily on previously debunked claims of widespread election irregularities in Georgia as it persuaded a federal judge last month to sign off on plans to seize 2020 voting records from the state’s most populous county, court documents unsealed Tuesday show. In a pair of Jan. 28 search warrant affidavits, authorities said they were seeking evidence that would determine whether “deficiencies” in the vote tabulation in Fulton County, home to Atlanta, were the result of intentional wrongdoing that could constitute a crime.

But many of the issues they cited — including claims of duplicate ballots and missing ballot images — have been previously explained by county officials as the types of routine errors that frequently occur, are typically corrected in the moment, and are not significant enough to sway the outcome of an election. Independent reviews have backed up that conclusion.

The affidavits did not identify any Fulton County officials as a target of the FBI probe or cite evidence that any specific crime had occurred. Instead, the documents rely on accounts from 11 people, many of whom are prominent election deniers or members of Georgia’s Republican-controlled State Election Board, to suggest “unknown persons” may have purposefully sought to tamper with the county’s 2020 results.

“If these deficiencies were the result of intentional action, it would be a violation of federal law,” whether or not any of them were significant enough to affect the outcome of the race, FBI Special Agent Hugh Raymond Evans wrote in the affidavits, which sought court authorization for the bureau’s Jan. 28 search of Fulton County’s primary election warehouse and the office of the county’s clerk of courts. The affidavits were made public Tuesday after Fulton County officials and a coalition of news outlets, including The Washington Post, urged a federal judge to release the typically sealed court filings. The Justice Department did not oppose the request.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/02/10/fulton-voting-search-affidavit/