By Andrew Goudsward
WASHINGTON, Feb 10 (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department’s investigation into the 2020 election in Fulton County, Georgia, started with a referral from an election integrity official appointed by President Donald Trump, court documents showed on Tuesday.
Kurt Olsen, an attorney involved in legal challenges to Trump’s defeat in the 2020 election, referred the matter to the FBI. Olsen has recently been serving as a Trump-appointed official focused on election integrity and security, according to an FBI affidavit made public in the U.S. District Court in Atlanta.
The document lays out evidence used to justify an FBI search of Fulton County’s election center last month, during which agents seized more than 600 boxes of ballots and other material related to the 2020 election.
The search, which was approved by a federal judge, appeared to be an effort to support Trump’s false claims that his 2020 election defeat was the result of widespread voting fraud.
An FBI agent cited “deficiencies or defects” with the vote in Fulton County as evidence that laws around the retention of election records and voter fraud may have been violated.
“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 FBI agent wrote in the document.
The FBI cited evidence, including from a Republican member of the Georgia State Election Board, allegedly showing that Fulton County does not have scanned images of each ballot counted during the 2020 election and that some ballots were scanned multiple times during a recount.
Robb Pitts, the chair of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, called 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 told reporters.
County officials have asked a judge to order the return of material seized during the search, arguing that it violated the U.S. Constitution and placed voter privacy at risk.
The Justice Department did not contest the county’s effort to make public the affidavit, which prosecutors used to secure a warrant for the search.
Olsen’s role is the latest sign of involvement in the investigation by people close to Trump, who has continued to falsely claim that his defeat to Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 election was the result of widespread voter fraud.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was present for the search, sparking criticism from Democrats and some former intelligence officials who said her association with a domestic law enforcement operation was inappropriate.
Gabbard has argued that she has a role in protecting election infrastructure.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Democrat Mark Warner, the vice chairman of the Senate’s intelligence select committee, and fellow Democratic Senator Alex Padilla on Tuesday called on Gabbard and officials to brief the chamber on election security.
Warner also criticized Olsen and renewed his concerns about Gabbard’s presence at the search. “Why was the Director of National Intelligence there?” he said in a statement.
Olsen represented the Trump campaign as it raised claims of voter fraud in an unsuccessful attempt to persuade courts to set aside 2020 election results. Olsen made overtures to the Justice Department following the election to enlist officials to aid Trump’s attempts to overturn the election.
(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward and Jasper Ward; additional reporting by Costas Pitas; Writing by Ismail Shakil and Andrew Goudsward; Editng by Lincoln Feast.)
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