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Left: President Donald Trump waves to the media as he walks on the South Lawn upon his arrival to the White House, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026, in Washington (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana). Right: U.S. District Judge J.P. Boulee pictured during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Nov. 13, 2018 (CSPAN).
In a recent legal clash, Fulton County has accused the Department of Justice (DOJ) of impatience and overreach in its investigation into Georgia’s management of the 2020 election. According to county officials, the DOJ sought to shortcut the legal process by pursuing a search warrant for potential violations it lacks authority to prosecute, as a means to delve deeper into the electoral procedures of that year.
On Saturday, U.S. District Judge J.P. Boulee, appointed by former President Donald Trump, mandated the unsealing of the case docket. This decision requires the DOJ to submit its search warrant affidavit by Tuesday, amidst Fulton County’s demand for the return of election materials from 2020, including ballots, ballot images, tabulators, and voter lists.
The newly unsealed documents revealed arguments presented by Y. Soo Jo, the attorney representing the Fulton County Board of Commissioners Chairman, Robb Pitts. In her argument, Jo contended that the affidavit, which justified the search warrant, lacked sufficient probable cause to confiscate approximately 656 boxes containing original 2020 election materials from the Fulton County Clerk of Superior Court. The warrant in question was authorized by U.S. Magistrate Judge Catherine Salinas on January 28.
The situation escalated when Robb Pitts publicly reacted to the FBI’s raid on the Fulton County Elections Hub. Expressing suspicion, Pitts noted the unexpected presence of DNI Tulsi Gabbard at the scene, suggesting it indicated more sinister motives at play. He further alleged that the actions were part of a broader strategy by Trump to use the county as an experimental site for his controversial agenda to centralize control over elections.
When Pitts publicly reacted to the FBI’s raid of Fulton County Elections Hub, he said that DNI Tulsi Gabbard’s unusual presence on scene suggested “something sinister” is “going on,” and that Trump was using the county as a testing ground for his push to “nationalize” elections.
Pitts’ memo supporting the return of the election materials referenced Gabbard and accused her of participating in a “callous” trampling of the First Amendment and intimidation operation.
“The Warrant was executed in a manner seemingly designed to intimidate; both the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, and the FBI Deputy Director, Andrew Bailey, were on site for the search,” the filing said. “The records seized included personal voter data and documents that could identify who voted for which candidate. Respondent’s seizure, resulting in the federal government being in possession of sensitive voter data, was in callous disregard of such First Amendment considerations.”
The memo, pointing out that the DOJ had been actively suing Fulton County Clerk of Courts Ché Alexander for 2020 election records, surmised that the Trump administration “became impatient” with having to go through the civil discovery process and decided to “improperly leapfrog” those limitations.
Just last Friday, the DOJ asked another judge to halt the lawsuit “until criminal proceedings have been resolved,” as the records DOJ sought were already seized.
Fulton County said the “timing” of the search warrant and the move to “circumvent” discovery “reveal” an “abuse of the criminal process.”
“Although parallel civil litigation does not automatically invalidate a search warrant seeking overlapping evidence, in the circumstances of this case, using the criminal process to improperly leapfrog and moot active civil litigation is an end-run around judicial supervision that reflects callous disregard for the procedural safeguards against unlawful search and seizure,” the filing said.
The county added that it is “appropriate” for the Trump administration to hand over the affidavit because it “appears” the search is “based upon claims that have been repeatedly investigated and rejected as baseless” and “unfounded” regarding systemic, election-altering voter fraud in 2020.
Meanwhile, the DOJ “callously disregards the Fourth Amendment” because it “cannot prosecute” the records-related “violations” it “cited as the basis of the Warrant,” as too much time has passed, the filing stated.
“Respondent based its Warrant on a potential violation of a records retention statute, 52 U.S.C. § 20701, and on a criminal penalties provision for voter intimidation and voter fraud, 52 U.S.C. § 20511. Section 20701 requires retention of records for 22 months. Section 20511 is subject to a five-year statute of limitations. Petitioners are well beyond both the retention period and the limitations period for the cited statutes. Thus, there is no basis for prosecutions under these statutes for claims related to 2020 election records.”
Fulton County’s legal team said that as a result it was “difficult to imagine how the affidavit supports probable cause[.]”
“Given the lengthy history of widely debunked voter fraud theories, there is little reason to have confidence that the affidavit establishes probable cause,” the memo concluded. “Respondent’s own investigative history and the public record negate the very fraud theories on which probable cause appears to rest.”