Judge hears arguments over seizure of Fulton County 2020 election records

(WASHINGTON) -- The FBI's application for the warrant that led to the search and seizure of more than 650 boxes of 2020 election records from a Fulton County, Georgia, election site in January lacked any kind of evidence of intentional misconduct and relied on incorrect information, an elections expert with twenty years of experience told a federal judge Friday. 

Testifying as Fulton County's first witness in its lawsuit against the Trump administration, Ryan Macias told the court that his review of the claims made by the FBI in their application lacked a "basis in reality."

"The content of the witnesses is incorrect and in many cases contradictory," he said. "The information in there is not based in reality." 

Lawyers with the Department of Justice attempted to cast doubt on Macias' testimony by arguing he lacks direct knowledge of the testimony in the case and is inexperienced in criminal investigations, though he was only qualified as an expert on election administration. Macias worked for both the federal government and California to administer elections as well as consulted for Fulton County in 2020.

Assistant Attorney General Tysen Duva broadly claimed, without citing any examples, that criminal investigations regularly stem from matters where initial investigations found no evidence of wrongdoing. 

"Are you aware that happens all the time?" Duva asked Macias. 

"No," Macias responded. 

"That's because you don't know," Duva responded. 

During his direct examination, Macias went through each of the claims made in the FBI's application for the warrant to debunk and cast doubt on each allegation. 

"Do ballot images have any impact on the final tabulation of ballots?" asked attorney Kamal Ghali, referencing the claim that election officials produced inconsistent numbers of ballot images from the 2020 election. 

"No they do not," Macias said. 

"Is the absence of ballot images evidence of misconduct?" Ghali asked. 

"No it is not," he responded. 

Fulton County Superior Court Clerk Ché Alexander testified that the FBI refused her request to help her make an inventory of the election records they seized from her office. She testified that she was at her office during the raid and asked to make an inventory to secure the chain of custody for more than 600 boxes of records, including original ballots from the election. 

"I asked the agent to go box by box to understand what they were taking and they said absolutely not," Alexander testified, though the FBI likely did an inventory of their own.

"I have a personal interest to do my job to keep those records safe and secure," Alexander said. "I am under a court order to maintain records I do not have."

DOJ lawyers sought to cast doubt on her claims, including by playing a video from a 2023 court proceeding when a lawyer for her office urged a judge to allow the removal of the records. According to the attorney, Fulton County wanted to make room for incoming records related to the 2024 election. 

"Her obligation is over at this point," the attorney for Fulton County said in 2023. "It has a significant impact on operations. The records cannot just be kept there forever." 

DOJ attorney Peter Cooch argued that the search of the office was effectively doing Alexander a favor, remarking, "Now that the records are sealed, the space is available to you now." 

DOJ lawyers also played body camera footage from the raid in which Fulton County's elections director can be heard saying, "If you want to take off 700 boxes of ballots, have at it ... They can go play paper airplanes for all I care."

Attorney Abbe Lowell, representing the Fulton County officials, argued that the search was based on incorrect information from unreliable witnesses related to claims that are years beyond the statute of limitations. 

"A week doesn't go by without someone in the administration making an allegation of voter fraud," Lowell said before reminding the judge that the investigation itself originated from an attorney who tried to overturn the 2020 election who was previously sanctioned for making false claims about the outcome. Lowell said the reliance on the unreliable witnesses would make "George Orwell smile in his grave." 

DOJ attorneys have insisted that the search was based on evidence of potential misconduct and accused Fulton County officials of speculating about "some kind of grand conspiracy." 

"It just seems like a loosey-goosey theory," said DOJ attorney Michael Weisbuch. "They don't like the vibe of what's happening because that's not a constitutional standard." 

U.S. District Judge JP Boulee, a Trump appointee, will decide on Fulton County's request to force the Trump administration to return the sensitive records taken from the election site. 

After election officials raised concerns about the basis for the January 2026 search, Judge Boulee last month ordered the Department of Justice to publicly release the application for the warrant, which revealed that the investigation was triggered by an attorney and close ally of President Trump who sought to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

According to the unsealed court records, the investigation centers on long-debunked allegations of voter fraud that have already been thoroughly investigated. 

Fulton County election officials have since pushed for the return of the records, arguing that the investigation focuses on "human errors that its own sources confirm occur in almost every election ... without any intentional wrongdoing whatsoever."

"The Affidavit omits numerous material facts -- including from the very reports and publicly-disclosed investigations that the Affiant cites -- that confirm the alleged conduct was previously investigated and found to be unintentional," attorneys for the Fulton County officials argued. 

In a late setback ahead of Friday's hearing, Judge Boulee quashed an attempt to force the FBI agent behind the search warrant to testify, concluding that questioning the agent could reveal "process and scope of the DOJ's investigation," which remains ongoing. 

President Donald Trump has long criticized the outcome of the 2020 election results in Georgia, personally pushing to overturn the results after his loss and later being indicted in two criminal cases over his actions. Those cases have since been dismissed, and Trump has continued to push for criminal accountability for what he baselessly alleged was a stolen election. 

Through a call with Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard -- who was present at the January raid -- President Trump personally addressed some of the agents who conducted the search and told them they were doing great work by investigating Georgia's elections, ABC News previously reported. 

"I was at Fulton County, sir, at the request of the president and to work with the FBI to observe this action that had long been awaited," Gabbard told lawmakers earlier this month when asked about her presence at the search. "It is my role based on statute that Congress has passed to have oversight over election security to include counterintelligence." 

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