By Trendsetter Tribune 
The legal battle over the FBI’s seizure of 2020 election records has reached a critical turning point. On Saturday, February 7, 2026, U.S. District Judge J.P. Boulee ordered the unsealing of key documents related to the January 28 raid on Fulton County’s election facility.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has until 5 p.m. on Tuesday, February 10, to release the search warrant affidavit, which will finally detail the “probable cause” used to justify the unprecedented seizure of original ballots.
The Raid and the Materials Seized
On January 28, FBI agents spent approximately nine hours at the Fulton County Elections Hub in Union City.
- The Haul: Agents seized roughly 656 to 700 boxes of original 2020 election materials.
- Specific Items: The seizure included physical ballots, tabulator tapes, electronic ballot images, numbered lists of voters, tally sheets, and absentee ballot envelopes.
- The “Gabbard Presence”: Adding to the controversy, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was spotted on-site during the raid. She reportedly facilitated a phone call between President Trump and the agents on the ground, a move that Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) called an “inappropriate” involvement of a sitting president in a criminal probe.
Fulton County’s Legal Counter-Strike
Fulton County Commission Chairman Robb Pitts and the Board of Elections filed an emergency motion under Rule 41(g) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, seeking the immediate return of the records.
| Argument | Details |
| Statute of Limitations | The warrant cited Title 52 (record retention and voter fraud). The county argues the 22-month retention period and 5-year fraud statute of limitations have both expired. |
| Chain of Custody | Experts warn that by removing original ballots from a locally secured facility, the FBI has “broken the chain of custody,” making future claims based on those records legally unreliable. |
| Circumvention | The county alleges the DOJ used a criminal warrant to bypass existing civil lawsuits where judges had previously limited the federal government’s access to these same records. |
Why Tuesday Matters
The release of the search warrant affidavit is expected to reveal the specific allegations the DOJ is investigating. Historically, the DOJ fights to keep these affidavits sealed during ongoing investigations; however, in this case, the government did not oppose the unsealing, provided that the names of private (non-governmental) witnesses are redacted.
Key Context: President Trump has stated that this investigation will finally prove he was the “true winner” of Georgia in 2020. Conversely, Georgia Democrats and election experts have characterized the raid as a “sore loser’s crusade” designed to intimidate election workers ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.