A federal judge has ordered the government to unseal documents tied to the FBI's warrant-authorized seizure of 2020 election ballots from a Fulton County, Georgia, election facility. Judge J.P. Boulee, of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, gave the government until Tuesday to file the warrant affidavit — with redactions limited to the names of nongovernmental witnesses.
The order comes as Fulton County officials fight to get the ballots back. Board of Commissioners Chair Robb Pitts and the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections have sued the federal government over the seizure, demanding the return of troves of 2020 ballots taken into federal custody.
They originally filed the case under seal. That veil is now lifting — and both sides say they're fine with it.
Judge Boulee — nominated by President Trump in 2019 — made clear that neither party objected to transparency, Breitbart News reported:
"Although Petitioners originally filed this case under seal, both parties have now indicated to the Court that they do not oppose unsealing the docket or the motions filed by Petitioners."
He also noted that the federal government had no objection to releasing the search warrant affidavit itself, the document that would lay out exactly why the FBI sought a warrant in the first place:
"Respondent has stated that it does not oppose the unsealing of the search warrant affidavit and any other papers associated with the warrant subject to the redaction of the names of nongovernmental witnesses."
That's worth sitting with. The federal government executed a judicially authorized warrant to seize election materials from one of the most controversial counties in American election history — and it has no problem with the public seeing why. Whatever is in that affidavit, the Justice Department isn't running from it.
The FBI operation at the Fulton County election facility took place late last month. It was executed under a judicial warrant — not a rogue operation, not an extralegal power grab, but a law enforcement action authorized by a court. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard appeared at the scene. In a letter to Sen. Mark Warner, Gabbard stated her presence was "requested" by President Trump and that she only observed the operation "for a brief period of time."
At the National Prayer Breakfast last Thursday, Trump indicated it was Attorney General Pam Bondi who insisted Gabbard oversee the raid. The details of who requested what and why will presumably become clearer as the sealed documents come to light. That's the point of unsealing them.
Fulton County's response has been litigation. Rather than cooperating with a federal investigation backed by a judicial warrant, county officials lawyered up and filed suit — under seal, no less — to get the ballots back. The instinct to hide first and fight second tells you something about the posture of local officials who spent years insisting they had nothing to hide.
Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, offered a characteristically breathless response:
"When you put all of this together, it is clear that what happened in Fulton County is not about revisiting the past, it is about shaping the outcome of future elections."
Warner and other Democrats have warned that Trump may attempt to meddle in the 2026 midterm elections — a claim offered without any specific evidence cited in the source material. The logic appears to be: the federal government investigated election materials in a county dogged by controversy; therefore, the federal government is trying to steal future elections.
This is the infinite loop Democrats have perfected. Any scrutiny of election integrity is itself an attack on election integrity. Any attempt to verify results is an attempt to overturn them. The only acceptable posture, in this framework, is to never look. Ask no questions. Examine no ballots. Trust the people who ran the process — even when the process is what's being questioned.
If the warrant affidavit reveals a serious evidentiary basis for the seizure, Warner's framing collapses. If it doesn't, he'll have his moment. But the fact that the federal government is welcoming the unsealing suggests they're not worried about what the public will find.
Fulton County is not some random jurisdiction caught up in a political dragnet. It is the single most scrutinized county in the most scrutinized state in the 2020 election. For years, questions about its election processes have been met with dismissal, deflection, and accusations of conspiracy theorizing directed at anyone who raised them.
Now the FBI has executed a warrant, seized ballots, and the county's first move was to file a sealed lawsuit demanding them back. Not a public statement of confidence. Not a welcome-mat posture from officials with nothing to fear. A sealed legal action.
The unsealing order changes the dynamic. By Tuesday, the public will have access to the warrant affidavit — the government's own stated reasons for seizing those ballots. Whatever those reasons are, they were persuasive enough for a judge to sign off on the warrant in the first place.
Tuesday's deadline is the inflection point. Once the affidavit is public, the conversation shifts from speculation to substance. The legal battle between Fulton County and the federal government will proceed on the merits. Democrats will either have to engage with the specific facts laid out in the warrant — or keep insisting that looking at ballots is itself a form of election interference.
The federal government wants these documents to be public. Fulton County filed under seal. One side is asking for sunlight. The other reached for the curtain.
