Federal Judge Allows Trump Administration to Keep Seized 2020 Fulton County Ballots

A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the Justice Department may retain ballots and other election materials seized from Fulton County, Georgia, in January as part of a criminal investigation into the 2020 presidential election. U.S. District Judge Jean-Paul Boulee said county officials had not established that the FBI affidavit supporting the search warrant showed a callous disregard for their constitutional rights, the high bar required for court intervention.

Boulee acknowledged that the affidavit was defective in some respects, including misleading statements about the final ballot count and troubling omissions about ballot handling mechanisms. "While the Affidavit was certainly far from perfect, this is not a situation where an officer left out all the facts that might undermine probable cause or where an officer intentionally lied," Boulee wrote.

He added that the shortcomings did not meet the high threshold for ordering the materials returned.

The FBI searched a Fulton County elections office in January and seized election materials weeks after opening a criminal probe into alleged irregularities in how the county conducted the 2020 election. The warrant application relied in part on allegations of election fraud that have circulated in far-right circles since President Trump's defeat.

Fulton County officials filed suit shortly after the search to retrieve the documents. In court filings they argued the criminal investigation appeared to be a pretext to acquire records that the current administration could not quickly secure through civil litigation.

The Justice Department called that theory nonsensical and said the county had not met the legal standard for relief. The speed of the investigation stood out to some observers, with the FBI moving to seize materials just weeks after opening the probe, an unusually fast pace for such a case.

Separately, the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections is attempting to block the Justice Department from accessing personal information of thousands of 2020 election workers. The board has not detailed the scope of its concerns in public statements.

The judge's ruling leaves the seized ballots and related materials in federal custody while the broader investigation continues. No charges have been publicly announced in connection with the probe.

“While the Affidavit was certainly far from perfect, this is not a situation where an officer left out all the facts that might undermine probable cause or where an officer intentionally lied.”

The decision aligns with similar rulings allowing the Trump administration to retain the 2020 election ballots seized from Georgia’s Fulton County.

In unrelated developments Wednesday, a federal appeals court struck down the Trump administration's mandatory ICE detention policy that had required holding most people who entered the country illegally without possibility of bond. The Commerce Department is also set to receive early access to new AI models from leading companies including Google and Microsoft as the administration moves toward greater oversight of artificial intelligence systems before their public release.

These actions reflect ongoing legal and regulatory efforts across multiple policy areas under the current administration.