Georgia Democrats are pointing to rare bipartisan agreement as they respond to newly unsealed court records detailing why the FBI seized hundreds of boxes of ballots and election materials from Fulton County earlier this year.
The unsealed court records are offering the clearest explanation yet for why the FBI seized hundreds of boxes of ballots and election materials from Fulton County's election hub, and they are already drawing sharp criticism from county leaders.
The affidavit, unsealed by order of a federal judge, outlines the justification federal agents used to obtain a search warrant for the January raid at Fulton County's Elections Hub and Operations Center in Union City.
According to the document, the investigation centered on alleged "deficiencies or defects" in the 2020 presidential vote count. Democrats say the document shows the investigation relied heavily on long-debunked conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election, a conclusion they argue is shared not just by Democratic officials but by Republican leaders and independent election experts as well.
Republican Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has publicly described similar claims about the 2020 election as "baseless and repackaged," while election security experts reviewing the affidavit say it largely rehashes public information that has been repeatedly investigated and dismissed.
David Becker, a nationally recognized election security expert, told national outlets the affidavit was "much weaker" than expected, noting it lacked allegations of intent, foreign involvement, or election theft. A Georgia State University legal professor quoted in local reporting described it as one of the strangest affidavits he had ever seen attached to a search warrant, saying it relied on information that has been publicly available for years.
Former Republican national security officials and libertarian legal scholars have also raised concerns, questioning how the claims cited in the affidavit rose to the level of probable cause.
Democrats say the unsealed records reinforce their argument that the FBI action risks undermining public confidence in elections rather than strengthening it.
According to Democratic officials and national reporting they cite, the affidavit contains no allegations of election theft, foreign interference, or coordinated fraud, despite the sweeping seizure of ballots and sensitive election materials.
Fulton County officials say multiple audits, recounts, court rulings, and independent reviews previously found no evidence of widespread fraud or errors that could have changed the outcome of the election.
"This affidavit confirms what election experts across the political spectrum have said for years," Democratic officials said in a statement. "Georgia's elections were secure, and recycled conspiracy theories should not be used to justify the seizure of voters' ballots."
The affidavit shows the investigation originated from a referral by Kurt Olsen, a former Trump campaign attorney who has promoted efforts to re-examine Trump's 2020 loss. County officials emphasized that Fulton County did not file a lawsuit against the Department of Justice or the FBI, but instead filed a Rule 41(g) motion in federal court seeking the return of the seized ballots and records.
In a statement released Tuesday, Fulton County Commissioner Marvin Arrington Jr. said the unsealed affidavit confirms long-held concerns about the nature of the raid.
"The unsealing of this affidavit confirms what many of us feared from the start: that this extraordinary FBI raid was rooted in recycled theories and politically motivated claims that have already been examined and rejected time and time again," Arrington said.
Arrington noted that Georgia's election process in 2020 was overseen by Republican state officials and subjected to repeated scrutiny, yet still found to be secure and accurate.
"No court, no state official, no independent review found evidence that our vote count was compromised or that the outcome was in doubt," he said. "Yet federal agents still carried out a sweeping seizure of ballots and election records -- an action that risks undermining public confidence rather than strengthening it."
The commissioner said Fulton County successfully pushed to have the affidavit unsealed and is now asking the court to order the immediate return of the materials, with safeguards to protect the chain of custody and the integrity of the records.
"Transparency matters," Arrington said, adding that the county will continue fighting efforts it believes could politicize local election administration.
Federal authorities have not publicly commented on the unsealed affidavit or the county's motion to recover the seized materials. CBS News Atlanta has reached out to the FBI and the Department of Justice for comment.
A representative from FBI Atlanta said the agency declines to comment at this time.