Fulton County Demands Return of 2020 Election Files Amid Expert Claims of Trump’s Unconstitutional Voting Overreach

In the wake of recent FBI raids in Fulton County, Georgia, where Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was notably present and President Donald Trump was reportedly on a call with agents, local authorities have taken legal action. They have filed a sealed motion seeking the return of all confiscated documents.

Fulton County, and Georgia at large, have been central to Trump’s focus since the 2020 elections. This fixation was fueled by incidents such as his attorney Rudy Giuliani’s false claims against election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, and Trump’s controversial call to Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, urging him to “find 11,780” votes just before the January 6 events.

Just a few weeks ago, the Trump administration attempted to shift the narrative of the January 6 Capitol unrest, suggesting that Democrats were to blame. They argued that individuals Trump pardoned, whom they described as “mere trespassers or peaceful protesters,” were unjustly labeled as insurrectionists. This stance overlooks the fact that January 6 was the culmination of unfounded claims of election fraud propagated by Trump and his supporters, failing to prove substantial fraud in courts that could have cost him the election against Joe Biden.

With FBI Director Kash Patel, a Trump loyalist, and DNI Gabbard present during the raid in what seemed to be a supervisory capacity, the Trump administration appears to be focusing on Fulton County as a key element of its agenda to “nationalize” election procedures. This is underpinned by a belief in widespread voter fraud that allegedly led to his election loss.

County Chairman Robb Pitts announced at a press conference that the federal case against the government seeks the return of 2020 election materials, including ballots, tabulators, and voter rolls. Additionally, the motion requests the unsealing of the affidavit that justified the FBI’s search warrant for the raid on their storage facility.

Pitts, remarking that Gabbard’s presence signified “something sinister” is “going on,” told a reporter that he agreed Fulton County is “in fact the epicenter” of an effort to nationalize elections.

“They’re fixated on 2020,” Pitts said, calling the raid the “first step of whatever they’re going to do to suppress voters” in the fast approaching election cycle, also worrying that the feds may tamper with seized evidence in the absence of an inventory of the 700 or so boxes that were taken.

Fulton County is significant to the president for another reason. It’s where his jail mug shot was taken, after DA Fani Willis, a Democrat, launched an election RICO case against Trump and 18 of his allies, only for the case to crash and burn due to Willis’ “improper conduct.”

The motion comes days after Trump said on ex-FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino’s show that Republicans should be saying “We want to take over, we should take over the voting in at least 15 places” and “nationalize the voting.”

Benjamin Ginsberg, a Republican election lawyer, made an appearance Tuesday on CNN, telling anchor Jake Tapper that Trump’s aims are “certainly not constitutional or legal.”

‘It’s certainly not constitutional or legal… the president has zero authority under the Constitution to do what he’s suggesting.’ Republican elections lawyer Ben Ginsberg weighs in on Trump’s call for the GOP to ‘take over the voting’ in 15 places. pic.twitter.com/1cmiZDOLZP

— The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) February 4, 2026

“It’s certainly not constitutional or legal. The Constitution does give the power to run elections to the states. Congress can put rules in for Senate and congressional elections. The president has zero authority under the Constitution to do what he’s suggesting,” Ginsberg said. “As a legal matter, it’s wrong.”

Ginsberg added that Trump is turning “upside-down” conservative Republican orthodoxy.

“For years and years, it has been an article of faith that power should come up from the states to the federal government,” he said.

In a 2020 op-ed, two months before the election Trump still won’t admit he lost, Ginsberg wrote that the president, his then-Attorney General Bill Barr, and Republican lawmakers were wrong to say U.S. elections are marred by widespread, systemic fraud and “rigged” as a consequence of mail-in ballots.

Ginsberg, citing his experience working for Republican causes since 1984, wrote that his job was to look for fraud and he did not find “proof of widespread fraud.”

“Each Election Day since 1984, I’ve been in precincts looking for voting violations, or in Washington helping run the nationwide GOP Election Day operations, overseeing the thousands of Republican lawyers and operatives each election on alert for voting fraud,” he said. “The truth is that after decades of looking for illegal voting, there’s no proof of widespread fraud. At most, there are isolated incidents — by both Democrats and Republicans. Elections are not rigged.”

Ginsberg, also remembered for playing a key role in the Florida recount in the 2000 presidential election that led to the Supreme Court’s decision in Bush v. Gore and resulted in George W. Bush’s presidency, added that it was “painful” for him to conclude that “rule of law” Republicans were politicizing the mail-in vote to gain an “electoral advantage,” not out of “sincere concern.”

The attorney went on to testify before the Jan. 6 Committee that the 2020 election, unlike the 2000 election, “was not close,” and the Trump campaign’s dozens of lawsuits simply failed to establish or even allege the fraud that the president and his allies decried outside of court.

“In all the cases that were brought—60 cases, with more than 180 counts—the simple fact is that the Trump campaign did not make its case,” Ginsberg testified.