An expert who observed Fulton County’s 2020 election testified Friday the federal government’s evidence justifying the January FBI raid in which agents seized hundreds of boxes of records showed no wrongdoing by the county.
In a hearing in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, lawyers for Fulton County questioned Ryan Macias, an election technology and security expert who advised the county during the 2020 election, about allegations listed in the FBI affidavit used to secure a search warrant for the raid. Some of those allegations are incorrect or contradictory, he said.
His testimony comes as Fulton attempts to retrieve its election records from the federal government that were seized in the raid.
Attorneys for the federal government pressed Macias on what he knows about search warrants and what he knows about the Trump administration’s criminal investigation. Macias said he didn’t have knowledge about either and that he could only speak to the allegations outlined in the affidavit.
Justice Department lawyers told Judge J.P. Boulee the FBI gave the county digital copies of all the materials seized.
The ballot seizure is the most dramatic escalation in the Trump administration’s ongoing campaign to prove wrongdoing in Fulton and elsewhere. The county’s 2020 election has been at the heart of unproven fraud claims for years.
The FBI’s affidavit revealed that investigators largely relied on recycled information from election skeptics who have cast doubt about the county’s 2020 election for years, despite investigations, court battles and multiple vote counts, including a hand count audit of every ballot cast, that have found no evidence of malfeasance.
President Donald Trump has never conceded his 2020 defeat and has continued to make baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him. During his second term, his administration has taken aggressive steps to investigate the long-scrutinized election, including the Fulton probe.
When agents descended on Fulton’s warehouse, they sought ballots, absentee ballot envelopes, tabulator tapes and other records from the 2020 election. The warrant cites two federal laws. One requires the county to hold on to election records for at least 22 months after a federal election. The other prohibits coercion in the voting process and knowingly tabulating fraudulent ballots.
The federal statutes have puzzled legal experts, who say the county would almost certainly fall outside the five-year statute of limitations for any related charges.
About the Author
Keep Reading
The Latest
Featured
