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Washington — Democrats on Capitol Hill are raising concerns with the FBI’s search of an elections office in Fulton County, Georgia, and warning that the operation is an example of President Trump using federal law enforcement to intimidate voters and undermine democracy.
The FBI executed the search warrant at the Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center on Wednesday and sought “a number of records related to 2020 elections,” the county said. A Fulton County commissioner, Marvin Arrington, Jr., shared an image of the warrant on social media, which indicated that the FBI is investigating potential violations of federal laws related to defrauding voters of a fair election process and the retention of federal election records.
Georgia’s two Democratic senators, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, both condemned the search and said it marked a new front in Mr. Trump’s efforts to use the power of the federal government to seek retribution.
“After losing Georgia in 2020, Donald Trump demanded state officials ‘find’ votes to change the outcome, tried to use DOJ to overturn it, and spread conspiracy theories that led to the Jan. 6 sacking of the U.S. Capitol. I suspect today’s raid is a continuation of this sore loser’s crusade, despite repeated audits and independent reviews confirming that Donald Trump was indeed defeated,” Ossoff said in a statement. “From Minnesota to Georgia, on display to the whole world is a President spiraling out of control, wielding federal law enforcement as an unaccountable instrument of personal power and revenge.”
Ossoff was referring to a call Mr. Trump had with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in January 2021, in which the president pressured him to “find” 11,780 votes. Joe Biden won Georgia’s 2020 presidential contest by 11,779 votes.
Mr. Trump has claimed without evidence that the 2020 election was rife with fraud and has continued to claim that the presidential contest was a “rigged election.” During a speech last week in Davos, Switzerland, Mr. Trump told the audience that “people will soon be prosecuted for what they did.”
But Georgia election officials counted legally cast ballots three times, Raffensperger said in December 2020, and each confirmed Biden’s win.
“The FBI should be focused on going after violent criminals, not carrying out political errands for a vengeful President. Republicans and Democrats agree: the 2020 elections were accurate and secure. End of story,” Warnock said in a statement in response to the FBI’s search in Fulton County.
Rep. Nikema Williams, a Democrat who represents the area, sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel demanding that they end the investigation and recall FBI agents from Fulton County election sites.
“The 2020 election was not stolen and was won by President Biden,” she wrote in the letter Wednesday. “Raids and renewed investigations based on the lie that President Trump won the election lack a factual basis and only serve to intimidate voters and undermine the integrity of our upcoming elections.”
Williams also pressed Bondi and Patel for answers about the FBI’s search, including whether Mr. Trump knew about it before it was conducted and if he played any role in directing or suggesting the search.
“The 2020 election has been litigated,” she said. “By continuing to raid election locations in Georgia, the Department of Justice (DOJ), this raid serves to intimidate Fulton County voters and election officials, rather than to further any legitimate law enforcement aim.”
Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, questioned why Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was at the scene of the search in Fulton County.
“There are only two explanations for why the Director of National Intelligence would show up at a federal raid tied to Donald Trump’s obsession with losing the 2020 election,” he said in a statement. “Either Director Gabbard believes there was a legitimate foreign intelligence nexus — in which case she is in clear violation of her obligation under the law to keep the intelligence committees ‘fully and currently informed’ of relevant national security concerns — or she is once again demonstrating her utter lack of fitness for office that she holds by injecting the nonpartisan intelligence community she is supposed to be leading into a domestic political stunt designed to legitimize conspiracy theories that undermine our democracy.”
Warner said that either reason is a “serious breach of trust that further underscores why she is totally unqualified to hold a position that demands sound judgment, apolitical independence, and a singular focus on keeping Americans safe.”
Gabbard and FBI Deputy Director Andrew Bailey were seen outside of the Fulton County Election Hub on Wednesday. A senior administration official told CBS News that Gabbard “has a pivotal role in election security and protecting the integrity of our elections against interference, including operations targeting voting systems, databases, and election infrastructure.”
Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee requested a briefing Thursday from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on the FBI search, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to CBS News. The office has not responded. The request for the briefing was first reported by Punchbowl News.
