FBI executes search warrant at election office in Fulton county, Georgia

The FBI executed a search warrant at the Fulton County, Georgia, election office on Wednesday, a spokesperson for the FBI’s Atlanta field office said.The purpose and scope of the warrant were not immediately clear. “Our investigation into this matter is ongoing so there are no details that I can provide at the moment,” said FBI Atlanta spokesperson Jenna Sellitto.Fulton County officials are scrambling to understand the nature and target of the search at the county’s election hub and operation center, according to Regina Waller, a spokesperson for Fulton County. The office’s location in south Fulton is roughly half an hour south of Atlanta.Donald Trump lost Georgia in the 2020 election, and his false claims about voter fraud in Fulton County, home to Atlanta, were central to his efforts to try to overturn the election. Trump and allies repeated false claims that election workers pulled ballots out of suitcases after counting had ended. Those claims were debunked and Rudy Giuliani, one of Trump’s lawyers, was ordered to pay two election workers $148.1m in damages as part of a libel suit.Trump allies have nonetheless continued claiming something was amiss in Fulton County. The justice department’s civil rights division filed a lawsuit against the county in December seeking to force officials to turn over ballots from the 2020 election.