WASHINGTON — The FBI executed a search warrant at an elections hub in Fulton County, Georgia, on Wednesday, seeking records related to the 2020 election, according to the county.
The FBI told NBC News that it was "conducting court-authorized law enforcement activity" at the Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center, while the FBI's Atlanta field office confirmed the activity and said an "investigation into this matter is ongoing so there are no details that we can provide at the moment."
Robb Pitts, chair of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, told reporters late Wednesday that he does not know where the records are being taken.
"All I know is that as long as those boxes had been in the control of the county in this facility, they were safe and secure," he said. "I can no longer, as chair of this board, satisfy not only the citizens of Atlanta but the citizens of the world that those ballots are still secure."
Sherri Allen, chair of the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections, said that as of 8 p.m. ET the FBI was "still in the building." Allen added in her remarks to reporters that the board “fully complied" with the FBI.
State Sen. Josh McLaurin, a Democrat who represents Fulton County, called the search "extremely alarming."
According to a senior Trump administration official, National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard was also in Fulton County on Wednesday and visited an elections hub — the same day the FBI executed a search warrant at the center.
“Director 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,” the senior administration official told NBC News in an email. “She has and will continue to take action on President Trump’s directive to secure our elections and work with our interagency partners to do so.”
Pitts told reporters Wednesday that Gabbard has not been in communication with the board.
Speaking last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, President Donald Trump repeated his false claim that the 2020 election was “rigged” and said that “people will soon be prosecuted for what they did.”
Fulton County has been a fixation of Trump's since his 2020 election loss in Georgia. In the lead-up to the Jan. 6 attack, Trump pressured Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in a phone call to “find 11,780 votes,” which was roughly Joe Biden’s margin of victory in the state.
“Do you think it’s possible that they shredded ballots in Fulton County?” Trump asked Raffensperger at the time. “Because that is what the rumor is."
Raffensperger’s office declined to comment Wednesday.
Pitts said he was not surprised when he found out about the search warrant because "Fulton County is sort of on a hit list."
"We have complied with the law. The 2020 elections were fair. They were open. Every legal vote was counted, and we will continue to comply with the law," he said.
Former special counsel Jack Smith's report on Trump's efforts to overturn his election loss noted that Fulton County election workers got death threats after Trump made his false claims.
The Fulton County Election Hub opened in 2023. The Elections Department occupies "the largest area with more than 261,000 square feet dedicated to staff, operations, and equipment," according to a post from the county government at the time.
Trump's focus on Fulton County also dovetails with the state criminal case Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis brought against him. The case was dismissed after she was disqualified from prosecuting it amid conflict-of-interest allegations. Trump had pleaded not guilty and is now seeking more than $6.2 million in attorney fees and costs in connection with that investigation.
Two Georgia election workers who were smeared by Trump allies — Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss — were harassed and received a torrent of threats after they were falsely accused of participating in a voter fraud scheme. Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor who boosted Trump's false election claims, accused the duo of passing USB drives “like vials of heroin or cocaine," when in fact they were passing a ginger mint. The duo were awarded $148 million in damages after a 2023 trial, and Giuliani satisfied the judgment in 2025.
Smith told members of Congress in a deposition last month that Freeman and Moss "were people that Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump targeted with absolutely false claims of election fraud" that "caused them to endure all these sort of vile threats."
