A week after FBI agents seized Fulton County’s 2020 ballots as part of a criminal probe, a judge has dismissed most of the claims in a long-running lawsuit that sought the same election records.

He also has ordered the plaintiffs to pay some of the county’s attorney fees.

The lawsuit dates back to December 2020 when a group of Fulton residents sued the county election board seeking to review ballots and other material they believed would show the election was rife with fraud. But on Wednesday, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney dismissed all but one claim brought by the plaintiffs.

McBurney also ordered the four plaintiffs to pay attorney fees totaling nearly $39,000 to Fulton County and to the county Superior Court clerk’s office, which had already been dismissed as defendants in the case. McBurney ruled the lawsuit “presented zero factual or legal questions” concerning the county’s liability for certain claims and gave the plaintiffs until Monday to pay the attorney fees.

Despite the judge’s ruling, the lawsuit’s aim of gaining access to county election materials may have been largely fulfilled when the FBI seized 2020 ballots and other documents from the county election office last week. President Donald Trump has said he believes the resulting review will prove the election was stolen.

Garland Favorito, the lead plaintiff in the case, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Fulton County also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The judge’s ruling is the latest twist in a long-running legal battle that centers on allegations of voting fraud in the 2020 election. Favorito has become an influential figure among a group of Georgians who are convinced that fraud cost Trump the election.

Numerous state and federal investigations have found no evidence of significant fraud in 2020, and Joe Biden’s victory was confirmed by two recounts, including a hand count of every ballot.

Nonetheless, Favorito and the other plaintiffs filed their lawsuit in December 2020 seeking access to the ballots. The case was dismissed in 2021 but later revived by the Georgia Court of Appeals.

On Wednesday, McBurney dismissed various claims in the lawsuit. For their lawsuit to go forward, the plaintiffs had to show they faced uncertain future — not past — events, McBurney wrote. He did not address the validity of the underlying fraud claims.

“The 2020 election is over,” the order said. The county’s allegedly flawed execution of that election has already occurred, and the relief the plaintiffs are seeking — a declaratory judgment — “is never a remedy for a past wrong.”