Was the FBI’s raid of Georgia’s Fulton County elections office legal?
The Excerpt
USA TODAY
4.1 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 6 February 2026
⏱️ 16 minutes
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Summary
Two recent elections-related developments are playing out today that have some election officials concerned. The first relates to the FBI’s seizure of election documents in Georgia, a state whose election President Donald Trump continues to falsely claim he won in 2020. The second involves recent public comments made by the president that elections should be nationalized in 15 states. Both of these actions may be illegal. Has the Trump administration crossed a line USA TODAY Justice Department Correspondent Aysha Bagchi joins The Excerpt to unpack the story.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Two recent elections-related developments are playing out today that have some election officials concerned. |
| 0:08.9 | The first relates to the FBI seizure of election documents in Georgia, a state whose election |
| 0:14.3 | President Donald Trump continues to falsely claim he won in 2020. |
| 0:18.9 | The second involves recent public comments made by the president that |
| 0:23.1 | election should be nationalized in 15 states. Both of these actions may be illegal, as the Trump |
| 0:29.8 | administration crossed a line. |
| 0:35.6 | Hello and welcome to USA Today's The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Friday, February 6th, |
| 0:41.4 | 2026. Here to help me unpack this important and involving story is USA Today Justice Department |
| 0:47.8 | correspondent, Aisha Baxh. Asha, thanks for hopping on. Sure thing. Happy to be here. |
| 0:53.6 | Asia, start us off, please, by telling us about the raid. |
| 0:57.8 | Where was it and what happened? |
| 1:00.6 | This raid was at a very large election center in Fulton County. |
| 1:06.1 | It's the Fulton County Election Hub near Atlanta. |
| 1:09.9 | It's a hub that actually I've been to a couple |
| 1:11.6 | times. I was covering the 2024 national elections down in Georgia. It's a very important hub when |
| 1:18.3 | it comes to vote tabulation and it stores a lot of voting records. And this is tied to much of |
| 1:24.8 | Atlanta. Fulton County is the most populous county in Georgia. So it's a very |
| 1:29.7 | important county for understanding what happens in the state as a whole. Joe Biden's win there in |
| 1:34.8 | 2020 helped propel him to victory across the nation. And the FBI conducted a raid here where |
| 1:41.4 | it was authorized by a search warrant to seize physical ballots, |
| 1:45.6 | to seize ballot images, and to see some records tied to vote counting, vote tabulation |
| 1:51.7 | in Fulton County, all in relation to the 2020 election. |
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