ATLANTA (AP) 鈥� is seeking the names of every person who worked in in Georgia鈥檚 Fulton County, a Democratic stronghold that Donald Trump has long accused of widespread voter fraud he falsely says cost him victory against Joe Biden in the state that year.
Lawyers for the county filed a motion on Monday night to quash a grand jury subpoena that asks for the names and personal contact information of county employees and volunteer poll workers. This latest action comes after the FBI in January went to a Fulton County elections warehouse and seized ballots and other documents from the 2020 election, which Georgia鈥檚 certified totals showed Trump lost in the state to Biden by 11,779 votes out of nearly 5 million cast. Trump, a Republican, still insists the election was stolen from him even though judges and .
Monday’s court filing says the subpoena is meant to 鈥渢arget, harass and punish the President’s perceived political opponents.鈥� The request is 鈥済rossly overbroad and untethered to any reasonable need,鈥� the county’s lawyers argue. It 鈥渃annot yield any evidence that could result in a criminal prosecution,” they wrote, arguing that the statute of limitations on any federal crime related to the 2020 election has already expired.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Tuesday.
County Board of Commissioners Chairman Robb Pitts, in an emailed statement, called the subpoena 鈥測et another act of outrageous federal overreach designed to intimidate and chill participation in elections.鈥�
鈥淟et me be crystal clear. Fulton County will not be intimidated,鈥� said Pitts, a Democrat who鈥檚 running for reelection.
Since the 2020 election, Trump 鈥渉as obsessively propagated the debunked conspiracy theory that Fulton County 鈥榮tole鈥� the 2020 election from him,鈥� the county鈥檚 lawyers wrote. 鈥淎nd he has made it clear that he seeks retribution against those who refuse to indulge his baseless claims.鈥�
Trump has already targeted individual poll workers like Ruby Freeman, who was attacked by him and his supporters after the election. Freeman, who’s Black, has said she was after false claims of election fraud against her led to racist threats and strangers showing up at her home.
The grand jury subpoena, dated April 17, was served on the county’s director of elections on April 20, the county’s court filing says. It seeks the 鈥渘ame, position/function, residential and email addresses, and personal telephone number(s)鈥� for thousands of election workers 鈥渞anging from county employees who assisted on election day, to bus drivers who operated a mobile voting location, to volunteers and temporary poll workers,鈥� the filing says.
The subpoena 鈥渋s a chilling escalation in the campaign to terrorize Fulton County election workers,” the county’s lawyers wrote, adding that threats arising from the current political environment have caused election workers to 鈥渇ear for their physical safety.鈥� That and other stresses 鈥渋ncluding the likelihood of being scapegoated by public officials鈥� are causing election workers to leave their jobs 鈥渋n unprecedented numbers,鈥� they wrote.
The county’s lawyers note that the subpoena directs the county to provide the records not to the grand jury but to an out-of-state Justice Department lawyer or to the FBI agent who wrote the affidavit used for the seizure of the county’s 2020 ballots in January.
The January seizure of the ballots and other records from Fulton County was one in a string of moves by Trump’s administration to obtain past election records from critical swing states. The FBI in March to get records related to an audit of the 2020 presidential election in Maricopa County in Arizona. And the Justice Department in April demanded that Michigan鈥檚 Wayne County turn over its ballots from the 2024 election, which Trump won against Biden’s vice president, Kamala Harris.
The Justice Department is also fighting numerous states in court for that includes sensitive personal information. Election officials, including some Republicans, have said handing over the information would violate state and federal privacy laws.
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