U.S. District Judge Jean-Paul Boulee, a Trump appointee, issued the order requiring the Justice Department to disclose details surrounding the seizure of election records from Fulton County. The county, home to Atlanta and the jurisdiction where District Attorney Fani Willis indicted President Donald Trump in 2023 on charges related to efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia, filed suit seeking the return of the materials.
In January, FBI agents seized more than 600 boxes containing original ballots and election records from the county. The seizure occurred years after multiple audits had cleared Fulton County of any wrongdoing. County officials characterized the action as retaliation and moved to recover the records through litigation.
Judge Boulee's order requires the Justice Department to reveal when the investigation began and when agents started drafting the warrant for the seizure. Civil rights organizations have raised alarm about the potential uses of the seized voter data, warning that it could be employed to purge Black voters from registration rolls ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
