FBI investigating 'deficiencies' in Fulton County’s handling of 2020 election, court docs reveal
FULTON COUNTY, GEORGIA: The FBI is probing alleged ballot irregularities in the 2020 election that saw now-President Donald Trump lose to Joe Biden, newly filed search warrant affidavits have revealed.
FBI special agent Hugh Raymond Evans has written the affidavits, which were filed Tuesday, February 10, in federal court by the Department of Justice. The documents now provide insight into the scope of the investigation.
Documents say probe launched to find 'any of the improprieties were intentional acts'
In the official papers, Evans has mentioned that the raid was carried out at the Fulton County Election Hub to seize items to check “whether any of the improprieties were intentional acts that violated federal criminal laws.”
He also noted that 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.”
Witness claims boxes of ballots had broken security seals
The affidavits mentioned analysis done by an unnamed witness, a chemical engineer. As per their examination of reviewed images of the released absentee voter ballot images, “the number of ballot images from the Recount did not reconcile with the number of ballots cast.”
The same witness also claimed in “his complaints to the Georgia State Election Board, allegations that extra ballots were introduced during the count of the absentee ballots.”
Another witness mentioned in the affidavits has alleged that boxes of ballots came with broken security seals. “When she asked about the security seals, she was told by an unknown individual that they did not matter,” documents said.
However, several accusations stated in the affidavits were earlier inspected by the Georgia State Election Board and through litigation. Trump, who has continued his 2020 fraud claim, lost at the time because the allegations lacked merit.
Docs claim Kurt Olsen wanted probe
Meanwhile, the newly filed documents have also disclosed that the current probe was launched after “a referral sent by Kurt Olsen, Presidentially appointed Director of Election Security and Integrity.”
Apart from Olsen, Trump's Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, is also reportedly playing a vital role in the probe. She was seen at the Fulton election facility during the FBI's search. Justifying herself in a letter to Congress, she said, “Her presence was requested by the President and executed under my broad statutory authority to coordinate, integrate, and analyze intelligence related to election security, including counterintelligence (CI), foreign and other malign influence, and cybersecurity.”
“The FBI’s Intelligence/Counterintelligence divisions are one of the 18 elements that I oversee," she added.
