News organizations sue to unseal filings in DOJ’s Fulton County election investigation

A group of news organizations, including NBC News, has filed a motion to unseal filings and subpoenas in the Department of Justice’s ongoing investigation into the 2020 election in Fulton County, Georgia.

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In January, the FBI seized ballots and other materials from the 2020 election from an elections hub in Fulton County, a Democratic stronghold in the key battleground state that President Donald Trump lost in 2020. Last month, the DOJ also sought to compel the county to hand over the names, home addresses, telephone numbers and email addresses of workers and volunteers who served during that election.

County officials have so far refused, calling it an effort to “target, harass, and punish the President’s perceived political opponents” in a filing to quash the subpoena. They also note that the statute of limitations for any election crimes in 2020 has run out.

Fulton County’s response justifies unsealing the filings, the news organizations argued.

“The grand jury witness — Fulton County — has disclosed the existence of the Subpoena, publicized the fact that it moved to quash the Subpoena, and even filed the Motion to Quash on the public docket. Thus, any grand jury secrecy has been lost, and the subsequent sealing of the Motion to Quash, the Subpoena, and the docket is not necessary or appropriate,” an attorney for the media groups wrote in a motion.

Fulton County Chairman Robb Pitts said the county welcomed “the support of news organizations in our effort to bring greater transparency and accountability to his matter of vital public importance.”

“Transparency matters,” Pitts said in his statement. “The DOJ’s demand for the personal information of election workers is unprecedented and raises serious public-interest concerns.”

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Filings in this case have been revelatory. The affidavit used to justify the warrant for Fulton County’s election materials was unsealed following the raid earlier this year, revealing that the investigation was rooted in largely debunked research by activists who have cast doubt on the integrity of the 2020 election.

Ryan Macias, a leading elections expert and a former U.S. Election Assistance Commission official, later testified before a federal judge that the FBI’s evidence “doesn’t make sense.”

“There’s no basis in reality for most of the witness statements,” he said. “There was missing information and the information that was relied on doesn’t reflect reality — what actually happened.”