FBI Search of GA Offices Used Old Data 02/11 06:17

   

   ATLANTA (AP) -- The FBI relied on years-old claims about the 2020 
presidential election, many of which had been thoroughly investigated and found 
to have no connection to widespread fraud, to obtain a search warrant for 
seizing ballots from election offices in Fulton County, Georgia, according to 
an affidavit unsealed Tuesday that shows the case began with a referral from an 
administration official who tried to help President Donald Trump overturn his 
election loss.

   The affidavit provides the first public justification for an FBI search last 
month that targeted a county Trump and his allies have long seen as central to 
their false claim that the 2020 election was stolen. It cites claims that for 
years have been made by people who assert widespread fraud in the contest, even 
though audits, state officials, courts and Trump's own former attorney general 
have all rejected the idea of widespread problems that could have altered the 
outcome.

   The investigation was initiated by a referral from Kurt Olsen, who advised 
Trump as his campaign and supporters lost dozens of lawsuits challenging the 
2020 election and now serves as Trump's "director of election security and 
integrity" overseeing the attempt to investigate Trump's loss, according to the 
affidavit.

   The search of the heavily Democratic county stirred immediate concerns among 
Democrats that Trump was marshaling the powers of the FBI and Justice 
Department to pursue retribution over his persistent claims of a stolen 
election and because of the unusual presence of Tulsi Gabbard, the country's 
director of national intelligence. The affidavit makes no mention of any 
evidence of foreign interference in the 2020 election even though the 
possibility of such meddling has been a longstanding conspiracy theory among 
Trump supporters who question the vote count.

   Democrat Joe Biden won Georgia by about 11,800 votes in an election overseen 
by a Republican secretary of state and certified by a Republican governor.

   Georgia officials fighting in court for the return of the ballots have 
decried the search, with Fulton County Chairman Robb Pitts on Tuesday calling 
the allegations "recycled rumors, lies, untruths and unproven conspiracy 
theories."

   "These accusations have already been debunked, but here we go again on a 
merry-go-round," Pitts said. "Fulton County will fight. We'll fight this with 
every resource that's at our disposal and we will not stop fighting."

   Uncertainty over whether any crime was committed

   The affidavit says the FBI is examining possible "deficiencies or defects" 
in the Fulton County vote count, including its admission that it does not have 
scanned images of all the ballots counted during the original count or the 
recount. Fulton County has also confirmed that some ballots were scanned 
multiple times during the recount, the affidavit says.

   "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," the document says.

   The affidavit says seizure of the election records was necessary to 
determine whether any records "were destroyed and or the tabulation of votes 
included materially false votes." It cites potential violations of a law 
regarding the preservation and retention of election records, a misdemeanor. It 
also cites a law that makes it a crime to "knowingly and willfully" deprive 
residents of a "fair and impartially conducted election process," which is a 
felony.

   But the document also expresses uncertainty about whether the potential 
defects constitute a crime, noting that elections in Fulton County have already 
been the subject of multiple reviews.

   Previous investigations found disorganization, but no evidence of fraud

   Investigations into complaints by the secretary of state's office, an 
independent monitor and a performance review by the state elections board, 
which came at the urging of the Republican-controlled legislature, reached 
similar conclusions.

   After a particularly disastrous primary election in 2020, an independent 
monitor was hired to observe the general election that year as part of an 
agreement between the county and the State Election Board. He documented 
"sloppy processes" and "systemic disorganization" but found no evidence of 
illegality or fraud.

   Republican state lawmakers in 2021 used a provision of a new law to initiate 
a performance review of the county's election practices. That review found that 
the county's elections had been characterized by "disorganization and a lack of 
a sense of urgency in resolving issues." But it also found the county had shown 
marked improvement.

   According to the affidavit, the review board stated, "we do not see any 
evidence of fraud, intentional misconduct, or large systematic issues that 
would have affected the result of the November 2020 election."

   Many of the 2020 election claims were thoroughly investigated

   One of the central allegations is that someone inserted 17,852 "duplicate" 
ballot images into the Fulton County file. But the affidavit quotes one witness 
as noting that those potentially fake images were actually more pro-Trump than 
the confirmed Fulton County votes. This indicated to the witness, the affidavit 
states, "that the introduction of duplicate ballots was intended to make the 
recount numbers match more than to affect the outcome of the election."

   That was a similar conclusion as that of investigators with the Georgia 
Secretary of State's office, the affidavit adds, saying the Republican-run 
office found the error "not intentional misconduct."

   Another allegation focuses on "pristine" absentee ballots that an unnamed 
poll manager said she saw when the ballots were counted by hand. She said the 
ballots were not folded as they would have been if they were put in an 
envelope, felt different from the other ballots and were all filled in the 
same, the affidavit says.

   A former official with the secretary of state's office told the FBI that 
there would be unfolded absentee ballots in every election because they would 
be generated by vote review panel members when they examined damaged ballots.

   Investigators with the secretary of state's office looked into claims of 
pristine ballots in 2021, pulling boxes and batches identified by a woman who 
had worked as an auditor during the hand count, and found no evidence to 
support her claims.

   County seeks return of seized equipment

   Agents armed with a warrant spent hours on Jan. 28 at the county elections 
hub, just south of Atlanta, before driving off with trucks loaded with hundreds 
of cartons of election materials.

   A week after the seizure, Fulton County officials filed a motion seeking the 
return of the materials that had been taken and the unsealing of the sworn 
statement presented to the judge who signed off on the search. The warrant 
sought the seizure of the following documents related to the 2020 election in 
the county: all ballots, tabulator tapes from the scanners that tally the 
votes, electronic ballot images created when the ballots were counted and then 
recounted, and all voter rolls.

   "Claims that the 2020 election results were fraudulent or otherwise invalid 
have been exhaustively reviewed and, without exception, refuted," the county 
argued in a court filing.