What you need to know
President Donald Trump’s false claims about 2020 voter fraud appear to be being revisited in a new FBI investigation.
On Wednesday, January 28, the FBI raided an election office in Fulton County, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta.
FBI Atlanta confirmed the raid to PEOPLE, referring to it as a “court-authorized law enforcement action” of the Fulton County Elections Hub and Operations Center in Union City, saying “the investigation into this matter is ongoing” and providing no further details.
The investigation concluded Wednesday night, a law enforcement official told Reuters, adding that the FBI was searching computers and ballots believed to be stored at the facility to investigate “possible election interference.”
CNN reported, citing people familiar with the situation, that the raid is related to the Justice Department’s investigation into allegations of voter fraud in Fulton County related to Trump’s baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
Irvin Temka/Atlanta Journal – Constitution via AP
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Democrat Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election and also won Georgia.
Commissioner Marvin Arrington Jr. called the situation “absolutely crazy” during a press conference Wednesday, noting that a criminal search warrant is now being issued because access to voter records was denied in a civil lawsuit.
AP Photo/Mike Stewart
“The criminal search warrant is sealed, so we don’t even know who the person is being searched for,” Arrington Jr. said. “This is nothing but sowing seeds of distrust. This is a frontal attack on democracy.”
Similarly, Director Mo Ivory described the FBI raid as a “scare tactic” to “instill fear and confusion.”
“This is meant to scare people away from going to the polls because the midterm elections are going to be so important to get what’s going on in this country back on track,” Ivory said. “So instead of taking care of people who are dying on the streets of Minnesota, they are here in Fulton County trying to get their hands on 2020 ballots that have been sitting there for six years since it turned out there was no problem with the 2020 election.”
In a statement to PEOPLE, Ivory said, “What happened yesterday is political pressure, plain and simple…Fulton County’s 2020 election has already been audited multiple times. Re-litigating or reinvestigating a settled election, especially by removing the original material, serves no legitimate public purpose. Rather, such conduct is intended to perpetuate suspicion, confuse voters, and undermine trust in the democratic process.”
“My focus now is on knowing exactly what happened, what material was filmed, and under what authority it was filmed. I am committed to sharing as accurate information as possible so the public understands what is happening. We cannot allow this type of interference to become the norm,” Ivory added, concluding his statement.
PEOPLE reached out to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for additional comment, but did not immediately receive a response.
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President Trump appears to view the raid as a sign that his claims of 2020 voter fraud are becoming vindicated.
“Trump won by a landslide. The election was stolen!” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Thursday, January 29, reposting some of his 2020 claims.
Earlier this month in Davos, Switzerland, President Trump reiterated his claims of voter fraud in a speech, saying: “It was a fraudulent election. Everybody knows it. They learned it. People will soon be prosecuted for what they did.”
According to Reuters, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard visited the scene in Fulton County during the attack. Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, condemned Gabbard’s appearance, saying it showed she was “totally unfit for public office” and accusing her of “guiding the nonpartisan intelligence agency she is supposed to lead into a domestic political stunt.”
Warner added: “She is completely unqualified to hold a position that requires sound judgment, apolitical independence, and a singular focus on keeping the American people safe.”
