Trump’s Justice Department requests Fulton County’s 2020 election records

The U.S. Department of Justice has requested Fulton County election records from 2020 as the Trump administration and its supporters continue to scrutinize the presidential election won by Democrat Joe Biden.

In a letter dated Thursday, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon sought a slew of records previously requested by the Georgia State Election Board and unnamed “voter transparency advocates.” Dhillon asked the county election board to produce the records within 15 days.

“Transparency appears to have been frustrated at multiple turns in Georgia,” Dhillon wrote.

The Justice Department declined to comment on the request.

Fulton County Commission Chairman Robb Pitts told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution the 2020 election results stand, and there is no reason to relitigate it.

“It makes no sense to keep trying the 2020 elections,” he said. “The 2020 elections are over and done with.”

The federal request is an escalation of the continuing battle over the results of the 2020 election in Georgia. President Donald Trump has long insisted the election was stolen and sought to overturn Biden’s Georgia victory in court and in the General Assembly.

Numerous state and federal investigations have found no evidence to support Trump’s fraud allegations, and Biden’s narrow victory was confirmed by two recounts. But the request by Trump’s Justice Department affirms he and his supporters remain focused on the election results five years ago in Georgia’s largest county.

The federal intervention came at the request of the right-wing majority on the Georgia State Election Board. Last year, the board reprimanded Fulton County, saying it double-scanned at least 3,000 ballots during the recount.

State investigators said they could not confirm the ballots were counted twice, and they found no intentional wrongdoing.

But after the right-wing majority took control of the board last year, it reopened the investigation. The board subpoenaed a slew of documents related to Fulton’s handling of the recount, including voter lists, chain-of-custody forms, ballot images, documentation of security seals and ballot scanner paperwork.

The county sought to quash the subpoena, which is tied up in court. But the board voted 3-2 in July to ask the Justice Department to intervene. In Thursday’s request, the Justice Department directed county officials to produce all the documents the state board sought last year.