CNN: Fulton’s new filing accuses DOJ of ‘serious omissions’

Atlanta – Today, Fulton County plaintiffs filed a new brief in federal court – supported by a detailed declaration from Ryan Macias, a nationally recognized election‑technology expert – laying out why the FBI’s unprecedented seizure of roughly 700 boxes of 2020 election ballots and records never should have been approved, and why those materials must be returned. The filing comes a week after a previously sealed FBI search warrant affidavit was unsealed, revealing that the raid rested on long‑debunked conspiracy theories spread by election deniers who tried to help overturn Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss.

In their amended motion, Fulton leaders argue that the affidavit fails to establish probable cause, omits key facts that undercut the government’s theory, and relies on alleged offenses that are now outside the statute of limitations – all while trampling Georgia’s authority to run its own elections. CNN has already highlighted Fulton’s argument that the DOJ misled the judge by omitting prior investigations and leaving out facts that undercut its own witnesses’ credibility. Fair Fight Action CEO Lauren Groh‑Wargo responded with the following statement:

“Today’s filing makes plain what the unsealed ‘evidence’ already suggested: this raid was never about uncovering fraud – it was about giving legal cover to Donald Trump’s political vendetta. The FBI built a search warrant on conspiracy theories that Georgia’s own Republican officials already investigated and rejected, then they hid the facts from the judge.

“Instead of respecting Georgia’s sovereignty and the rule of law, Trump’s DOJ is using sham ‘evidence’ from election deniers to seize ballots, short‑circuit state courts, and lay the groundwork for taking over how our elections are run.”

Brief Recap: What’s happened so far.

• On January 28, 2026, FBI agents executed a sealed search warrant at Fulton County’s election hub, seizing roughly 700 boxes of 2020 ballots and election records – the first time federal agents have physically taken custody of Fulton’s 2020 election materials.
• On February 10, a federal judge unsealed the underlying affidavit, which showed the FBI relied heavily on recycled, debunked fraud claims from the same network of election deniers who tried to overturn the 2020 election, including Kevin Moncla and allies tied to Cleta Mitchell’s Election Integrity Network.
• Fulton County then moved under Rule 41(g) to force the federal government to return the ballots and records and to bar the DOJ from using them while the case is pending.

Today’s filing – 3 ways Fulton says the FBI’s case collapses:

1. The FBI search warrant affidavit does not support probable cause.

• Fulton’s brief argues that, even on its own terms, the affidavit comes nowhere close to establishing probable cause that a crime was committed.
• The affidavit concedes there was no fraud, no intentional misconduct, and no large‑scale or systemic issues – only the kind of human errors that are common in large elections and that Georgia’s Republican officials already reviewed and resolved.
• Even if every irregularity described were true, Fulton notes, the government never shows they were material or that anyone “knowingly and willfully” broke federal law, as the cited statutes require.

2. The FBI left out key facts and context.

• Fulton’s motion details how the FBI relied on disproven reports spread by election deniers and cherry‑picked snippets of state investigative documents, omitting findings that mattered: Georgia’s Secretary of State and State Election Board investigated these claims and found no evidence of fraud or outcome‑changing or intentional misconduct.
• To document those omissions, Fulton submitted a declaration from elections expert Ryan Macias, a nationally respected election technology and cybersecurity specialist who has worked for the California Secretary of State and the U.S. Election Assistance Commission and observed Fulton’s 2020 hand count firsthand.
• Macias walks through the affidavit’s five supposed “deficiencies” – from “missing ballot images” to claims about ballots being scanned multiple times – and shows that the FBI repeatedly ignored state investigative reports, performance review report, and testimony explaining why these issues were benign, commonly encountered in election administration, and did not affect the results.
• Macias notes that once those omissions are corrected, the affidavit “loses any basis in reality.”

3. Even if probable cause existed, the seizure was unlawful.

• The filing notes that the criminal statutes cited in the warrant have a five‑year statute of limitations and the conduct described in the affidavit dates back to the 2020 election – putting the alleged offenses outside the window for prosecution.
• Fulton also warns that the FBI’s seizure improperly interfered with an ongoing state‑court proceeding over access to the same 2020 records, violating the bedrock constitutional principle that states – not the federal government – run elections.
• Fulton argues they are being irreparably harmed by the continued seizure because they cannot comply with Georgia law and state‑court orders regarding the ballots while the federal government holds them – and they have no other way to get the records back.

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