Federal agents with the FBI executed a search warrant at the Fulton County, Georgia election office on January 28, 2026, seeking original ballots from the 2020 presidential election. The action prompted immediate reaction from former President Donald Trump, who posted on social media alleging Italian military satellites had hacked voting machines and that China was involved in manipulating the election.
The search is the latest development in a continuing series of investigations into claims of election fraud stemming from the 2020 election, despite numerous court rulings and recounts that have consistently upheld the results. Researchers tracked 194 separate court decisions related to the 2020 election, finding that only 28, or 14 percent, favored Trump. In federal courts, only one of 44 rulings by federal judges sided with his position. Even judges appointed by Trump himself rejected his challenges.
The Justice Department, under Attorney General William Barr in 2020, had previously investigated similar claims made by Trump regarding dead voters, non-citizens voting and vote switching, but found no evidence to support them. The current investigation appears to revisit these previously debunked allegations.
The unsealed justification for the warrant, as reported by POLITICO, indicates the allegations largely mirror those previously promoted by conservative activists. This renewed scrutiny comes more than six years after the election in question, raising questions about the timing and scope of the investigation.
Concerns about election integrity also surfaced following the 2024 election, with claims of irregularities based on data analysis of “drop-off” votes in Nevada, a state won by Donald Trump. The Election Truth Alliance (ETA) suggested these results were “consistent with vote manipulation,” though these claims remain speculative and have not prompted any formal investigations or challenges to the election results.
In Michigan, Representative Hillary Scholten, a Democrat, has raised concerns about the potential impact of the SAVE America Act on voting access for married women. Scholten argues the bill, which requires government-issued photo ID to verify citizenship and to vote, could disenfranchise women who have changed their names but not updated their birth certificates. Though, Michigan law does not list marriage as a valid reason to correct a birth certificate, and citizens may only amend their birth records to correct errors, change a sex designation, correct a place of birth, or amend parental records.
PolitiFact has documented a surge in election fraud claims in the months leading up to and during early voting in 2024, primarily focused on vote counting, mail-in ballots, and voting machines. These claims, like those surrounding the 2020 election, have largely been unsubstantiated.
As of February 16, 2026, the FBI has not released further details regarding the specific focus of the search warrant or the evidence they are seeking from the Fulton County election office. The investigation remains ongoing.
