FBI search of Georgia election offices relied on years-old claims of
fraud, affidavit shows
[February 11, 2026]
By KATE BRUMBACK, ERIC TUCKER and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER
ATLANTA (AP) — The FBI relied on years-old claims about the 2020
presidential election, many of which had been thoroughly investigated
and found to have no connection to widespread fraud, to obtain a search
warrant for seizing ballots from election offices in Fulton County,
Georgia, according to an affidavit unsealed Tuesday that shows the case
began with a referral from an administration official who tried to help
President Donald Trump overturn his election loss.
The affidavit provides the first public justification for an FBI search
last month that targeted a county Trump and his allies have long seen as
central to their false claim that the 2020 election was stolen. It cites
claims that for years have been made by people who assert widespread
fraud in the contest, even though audits, state officials, courts and
Trump's own former attorney general have all rejected the idea of
widespread problems that could have altered the outcome.
The investigation was initiated by a referral from Kurt Olsen, who
advised Trump as his campaign and supporters lost dozens of lawsuits
challenging the 2020 election and now serves as Trump's “director of
election security and integrity” overseeing the attempt to investigate
Trump’s loss, according to the affidavit.
The search of the heavily Democratic county stirred immediate concerns
among Democrats that Trump was marshaling the powers of the FBI and
Justice Department to pursue retribution over his persistent claims of a
stolen election and because of the unusual presence of Tulsi Gabbard,
the country's director of national intelligence. The affidavit makes no
mention of any evidence of foreign interference in the 2020 election
even though the possibility of such meddling has been a longstanding
conspiracy theory among Trump supporters who question the vote count.
Democrat Joe Biden won Georgia by about 11,800 votes in an election
overseen by a Republican secretary of state and certified by a
Republican governor.
Georgia officials fighting in court for the return of the ballots have
decried the search, with Fulton County Chairman Robb Pitts on Tuesday
calling the allegations “recycled rumors, lies, untruths and unproven
conspiracy theories.”
“These accusations have already been debunked, but here we go again on a
merry-go-round,” Pitts said. “Fulton County will fight. We’ll fight this
with every resource that’s at our disposal and we will not stop
fighting.”
Uncertainty over whether any crime was committed
The affidavit says the FBI is examining possible “deficiencies or
defects” in the Fulton County vote count, including its admission that
it does not have scanned images of all the ballots counted during the
original count or the recount. Fulton County has also confirmed that
some ballots were scanned multiple times during the recount, the
affidavit says.
“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 document
says.
The affidavit says seizure of the election records was necessary to
determine whether any records “were destroyed and or the tabulation of
votes included materially false votes.” It cites potential violations of
a law regarding the preservation and retention of election records, a
misdemeanor. It also cites a law that makes it a crime to “knowingly and
willfully” deprive residents of a “fair and impartially conducted
election process,” which is a felony.
But the document also expresses uncertainty about whether the potential
defects constitute a crime, noting that elections in Fulton County have
already been the subject of multiple reviews.
Previous investigations found disorganization, but no evidence of
fraud
Investigations into complaints by the secretary of state’s office, an
independent monitor and a performance review by the state elections
board, which came at the urging of the Republican-controlled
legislature, reached similar conclusions.
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The Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center, is seen
Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, in Union City, Ga, near Atlanta, as FBI
agents search at the main election facility. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
After a particularly disastrous primary election in 2020, an
independent monitor was hired to observe the general election that
year as part of an agreement between the county and the State
Election Board. He documented “sloppy processes” and “systemic
disorganization” but found no evidence of illegality or fraud.
Republican state lawmakers in 2021 used a provision of a new law to
initiate a performance review of the county’s election practices.
That review found that the county’s elections had been characterized
by “disorganization and a lack of a sense of urgency in resolving
issues.” But it also found the county had shown marked improvement.
According to the affidavit, the review board stated, “we do not see
any evidence of fraud, intentional misconduct, or large systematic
issues that would have affected the result of the November 2020
election.”
Many of the 2020 election claims were thoroughly investigated
One of the central allegations is that someone inserted 17,852
“duplicate” ballot images into the Fulton County file. But the
affidavit quotes one witness as noting that those potentially fake
images were actually more pro-Trump than the confirmed Fulton County
votes. This indicated to the witness, the affidavit states, “that
the introduction of duplicate ballots was intended to make the
recount numbers match more than to affect the outcome of the
election.”
That was a similar conclusion as that of investigators with the
Georgia Secretary of State’s office, the affidavit adds, saying the
Republican-run office found the error “not intentional misconduct.”
Another allegation focuses on “pristine” absentee ballots that an
unnamed poll manager said she saw when the ballots were counted by
hand. She said the ballots were not folded as they would have been
if they were put in an envelope, felt different from the other
ballots and were all filled in the same, the affidavit says.
A former official with the secretary of state’s office told the FBI
that there would be unfolded absentee ballots in every election
because they would be generated by vote review panel members when
they examined damaged ballots.
Investigators with the secretary of state’s office looked into
claims of pristine ballots in 2021, pulling boxes and batches
identified by a woman who had worked as an auditor during the hand
count, and found no evidence to support her claims.
County seeks return of seized equipment
Agents armed with a warrant spent hours on Jan. 28 at the county
elections hub, just south of Atlanta, before driving off with trucks
loaded with hundreds of cartons of election materials.
A week after the seizure, Fulton County officials filed a motion
seeking the return of the materials that had been taken and the
unsealing of the sworn statement presented to the judge who signed
off on the search. The warrant sought the seizure of the following
documents related to the 2020 election in the county: all ballots,
tabulator tapes from the scanners that tally the votes, electronic
ballot images created when the ballots were counted and then
recounted, and all voter rolls.
“Claims that the 2020 election results were fraudulent or otherwise
invalid have been exhaustively reviewed and, without exception,
refuted,” the county argued in a court filing.
____
Associated Press writer Nicholas Riccardi in Denver contributed to
this report.
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