The Trump administration has filed a lawsuit against a Georgia county seeking access to 2020 voting records as Donald Trump continues to claim the presidential election was stolen from him.
The Justice Department's lawsuit asks the state to return “all used and invalid ballots, all ballot stubs, signature envelopes, and associated digital envelope files from the 2020 general election in Fulton County.”
The government accuses the county of violating the Civil Rights Act after local officials said the ballots were sealed and could not be produced without a court order.
Trump narrowly lost the state of Georgia to Joe Biden in 2020, one of several defeats that cost him the White House.
According to lawsuitIn October, the Justice Department issued a subpoena to Fulton County election officials demanding voting materials, citing an investigation into “compliance with federal election law.”
In a statement Friday, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said states must guard against “vote dilution.”
“In this Department of Justice, we will not allow states to jeopardize the integrity and efficiency of elections by refusing to comply with our federal election laws,” she said. “If states fail to meet their responsibilities to protect the integrity of the ballot, we will.”
The district did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
After losing the 2020 election to Biden, Trump alleged widespread fraud. Numerous courts rejected legal challenges brought by his campaigns and allies.
Georgia, especially Fulton County and the Atlanta region, has become a focal point of Trump's challenge to the 2020 election results.
After the electionsTrump called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and told him, “I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state.”
Raffensperger, whose office oversees Georgia's elections and certifies the results, confirmed Biden won the state even after several reviews.
His office declined to comment on the Justice Department's lawsuit.
It was in Fulton County that Trump was later indicted on criminal charges in connection with a scheme to overturn the state's election results.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis filed an unsuccessful racketeering case against him. alleging that he led a criminal conspiracy to undermine the election results in Georgia. Trump pleaded not guilty to the charges in August 2023.
A judge dismissed the case earlier this monthafter a series of procedural blows derailed the prosecution and Trump's return to the White House in 2025 stalled the case.
The Georgia election interference case was once considered the most threatening of the four criminal charges against Trump because he would not be able to pardon himself on the state charges if he were to return to office.
