周三，一名联邦法官拒绝了富尔顿县官员要求美国联邦调查局归还2020年大选数百箱选票的请求今年早些时候被查封.
法官J. P. Boulee写道，“本案中的扣押当然不是完美的。”“然而...请愿人没有证明他们的权利由于缺乏可能的理由、宣誓书中的遗漏或执行扣押的方式而被无情地忽视。”
今年1月，美国联邦调查局查获了600多箱富尔顿县的选举记录，这是唐纳德·特朗普总统的盟友推动的一项调查的一部分，特朗普总统试图推翻2020年大选的结果。
虽然法官承认，导致美国联邦调查局没收富尔顿县2020年选票的事件是“前所未有的”，但他得出结论，该县官员没有达到迫使当局在正在进行的调查中归还证据所需的高法律标准。
在一份68页的裁决中，特朗普任命的布雷驳回了富尔顿县提出的大部分论点，拒绝了搜查证宣誓书“严重不足”或撰写该宣誓书的代理人“鲁莽”的说法。
“在法庭看来，[特别探员]埃文斯向治安法官提供了既伤害又帮助他的事实。虽然宣誓书当然远非完美，但这不是一个警官遗漏了所有可能破坏可能原因的事实或警官故意撒谎的情况，”Boulee写道。
法官确实对宣誓书的某些方面提出了异议——他写道，宣誓书“在某些方面有缺陷”,并且包含“令人不安”的陈述。
“法院再次同意请愿人的意见，即宣誓书中的这些特征是有问题的。然而，法院认识到，它的任务是评估被告是否无情地无视请愿者的权利，”他写道。
最终，法官表示，富尔顿县官员无法证明他们的权利被“无情地忽视”,或者如果600箱选票没有归还，他们将受到不可挽回的伤害。他补充说，富尔顿县官员“没有提出证据证明选举材料被操纵、滥用或公开披露”，或者“选票的保密性因被没收而受到损害。”
在周三晚上发布的一份声明中，富尔顿县委员会主席罗布·皮茨说，他“强烈”不同意法院的裁决，并发誓要“积极寻求所有可用的法律选择”
虽然富尔顿县的动议被驳回，皮茨说:“我们的斗争暴露了有缺陷的宣誓书和联邦行动的可疑时间表。我们将一如既往地支持袖手旁观、我们的选举工作人员和富尔顿县的选民。”
富尔顿县官员在二月份提起诉讼，要求收回选票。
特朗普一再毫无根据地声称，2020年大选中存在选民欺诈，特别是在佐治亚州，这导致了他的选举失败。选举后，佐治亚州官员对选举结果进行了审核和认证，法院驳回了许多质疑该州选举结果的诉讼。
Judge denies request to force FBI to return seized 2020 Fulton County ballots
A federal judge on Wednesday denied a request from Fulton County officials to force the FBI to return hundreds of boxes of ballots from the 2020 election that wereseized earlier this year.
"The seizure in this case was certainly not perfect," Judge J. P. Boulee wrote. "However ... petitioners did not establish that their rights were callously disregarded either through the lack of probable cause, omissions in the Affidavit or by the manner of the execution of the seizure."
The FBI seized more than 600 boxes of Fulton County's election records in January as part of an investigation driven by allies of President Donald Trump who sought to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election.
While the judge acknowledged that the events leading up to the FBI's seizure of Fulton County's 2020 ballots were "unprecedented," he concluded that the county officials did not meet the high legal bar needed to force authorities to return the evidence during the ongoing investigation.
In a 68-page ruling, Boulee, a Trump appointee, shot down most of the arguments posed by Fulton County, rejecting the claims that the search warrant affidavit was "woefully deficient" or that the agent who authored it was "reckless."
"It seems to the Court that [Special Agent] Evans presented the Magistrate Judge with facts that both hurt and helped him. While the Affidavit was certainly far from perfect, this is not a situation where an officer left out all the facts that might undermine probable cause or where an officer intentionally lied," Boulee wrote.
The judge did take issue with some aspects of the affidavit -- writing that it "was defective in some respects" and contained statements that were "troubling."
"Again, the Court agrees with Petitioners that such features within the Affidavit are problematic. Nevertheless, the Court is cognizant that its task is to assess whether Respondent callously disregarded Petitioners' rights," he wrote.
Ultimately, the judge said Fulton County officials could not demonstrate that their rights were "callously disregarded" or that they would be irreparably harmed if the 600 boxes of ballots were not returned. He added that Fulton County officials "presented no evidence that the election materials were manipulated, misused or publicly disclosed" or that "that the secrecy of the ballot has been compromised by the seizure."
In a statement released Wednesday evening, Fulton County Commission Chairman Robb Pitts said he "strongly" disagrees with the court's ruling and vowed to "vigorously pursue all available legal options."
While Fulton County's motion was denied, Pitts said: "Our fight has exposed the flawed affidavit and suspicious timeline of federal actions. We will continue, as always, to stand by our election workers and the voters of Fulton County."
Fulton County officials sued in February seeking the return of the ballots.
Trump has repeatedly made baseless claims that there was voter fraud in the 2020 election, specifically in Georgia, that contributed to his election loss. Georgia officials audited and certified the results following the election, and numerous lawsuits challenging the election results in the state were rejected by the courts.
