Fulton County fights to get election materials returned from the FBI

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Feb. 4 (UPI) -- Fulton County, Georgia, filed a motion in federal court on Wednesday demanding the return of election materials taken from the county by the FBI. The motion was filed under seal, said Jessica Corbitt, a spokesperson for the county, to The New York Times. It also asks for the affidavit filed in support of the search warrant to be unsealed. Robb Pitts, chair of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, said at a press conference Wednesday that the motion was a way to uphold the Constitution and the rights of Fulton County voters. "We will fight using all resources against those who seek to take over our elections," he said. "Our Constitution itself is at stake in this fight." Fulton County Commissioner Marvin Arrington Jr. said the motion is important to the people of his county because "actions like this mass seizure risk sowing seeds of distrust in the election process." "This morning's filing could not have come fast enough; justice delayed is justice denied," Arrington said in a statement to USA Today. "The people of Fulton County deserve justice now, and that's why I pushed so hard to get this motion filed as soon as possible." On Jan. 28, the FBI seized large quantities of materials from the Election Hub and Operations Center in Union City, Ga., just outside of Atlanta. They specifically took items from the 2020 election, which President Donald Trump has claimed he won, despite a lack of evidence. Fulton County, which makes up a large portion of Atlanta, is a strongly Democratic county and is the most populous in the state. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was present at the raid, and lawmakers have demanded to know why. She responded that Trump had requested that she be there. In a letter to Rep. James Himes, D-Conn., and Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., Gabbard defended her presence. "My 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, foreign and other malign influence and cybersecurity," she said. The Times reported that a day after the raid, Gabbard facilitated a phone call between her, Trump and the FBI agents involved. "Tulsi Gabbard has no legal role in domestic law enforcement, yet 5 days ago she participated in an FBI raid of Fulton County, Georgia's, election office -- the center of Trump's 2020 election conspiracy theories," Warner said on X on Monday. "And now we find out that she orchestrated a call between Trump and the FBI agents conducting the raid? Something's not passing the smell test ...," he said. Trump has recently said that he wants to "nationalize" the upcoming midterm elections, though he has no legal authority to do so. The FBI agents loaded three box trucks of evidence from the election facility. Fulton County officials said that more than 20 pallets of ballots, election tape and equipment were taken, but they don't have a list of items from the Department of Justice, The Times reported. "We don't even have copies of what they took, so it's a problem," Pitts said. He added that the county wants the items back "so we can take an inventory" of what was taken. "We don't know where they are. We don't know, really, who has them," The Times reported he said. "We don't know what they're doing with them. Are they being tampered with? I can use my imagination, and I would certainly hope not. But we just - we don't know." Pitts mentioned Trump's comments about taking over the elections in about 15 states. "We'll be the test case," he said. "If they're successful in Georgia -- Fulton County, Georgia, in particular -- the others on that list of 15 plus states, they should be aware." He said the raid was "probably the first step in whatever they're going to do in order to depress voter participation, voter registration, making whatever changes they think are necessary to help their case in 2026, but more importantly, in 2028."