{"id":1370,"date":"2026-07-08T01:55:04","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T20:55:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=1370"},"modified":"2026-07-08T01:55:04","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T20:55:04","slug":"judge-rejects-justice-department-attempt-to-get-names-of-2020-election-workers-in-fulton-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=1370","title":{"rendered":"Judge rejects Justice Department attempt to get names of 2020 election workers in Fulton County"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"prism-article-body\">\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \"><span class=\"oyrPY qlwaB AGxeB  \">ATLANTA &#8212; <\/span>The U.S. Department of Justice cannot have the names and personal contact information for every person who worked during <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/joe-biden-wins-white-house-ap-fd58df73aa677acb74fce2a69adb71f9\">the 2020 election<\/a> in Georgia\u2019s Fulton County, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The Justice Department in April obtained a <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/2020-georgia-election-worker-names-trump-2c4bc764855341a0c9eedb135d25591e\">grand jury subpoena<\/a> seeking the names and personal contact information of county employees and volunteer poll workers. President Donald Trump has long <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/donald-trump-michael-pence-electoral-college-elections-health-2d9bd47a8bd3561682ac46c6b3873a10\">claimed without evidence<\/a> that widespread voter fraud in Georgia&#8217;s most populous county, a Democratic stronghold, cost him victory in the state in 2020.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Fulton County asked a judge to quash the subpoena, arguing it was meant to \u201ctarget, harass and punish the President\u2019s perceived political opponents\u201d and that it was \u201cgrossly over broad and untethered to any reasonable need.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cGiven the low need for the subpoenaed information and the highly burdensome nature of the disclosure of the same, the Subpoena is unreasonable and must be quashed,\u201d U.S. District Judge William Ray wrote in his ruling.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">While grand juries often work with federal prosecutors to investigate alleged crimes, \u201cthat does not give the DOJ the right to use the Grand Jury to do whatever the DOJ wants,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Even if the records sought by the Justice Department could help find people who worked for the county during the 2020 election who support the theory that the election was unfair, the information couldn&#8217;t be used to charge anyone, Ray wrote.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cThat is because the statute of limitations for any possible crime arising from the 2020 Election has long expired,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The subpoena came after the FBI in January served a search warrant at the Fulton County election hub and <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/fbi-georgia-elections-office-fulton-county-28e736037521b17197760d2394f0ab43\">seized hundreds of boxes of ballots<\/a> and other documents from the 2020 election. A federal judge in May <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-2020-election-fulton-county-fbi-ballots-1c425a1d1d04bf4ea2178c2a5443f2e9\">denied the county&#8217;s request<\/a> to force the federal government to return the ballots.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The Justice Department argued in a court filing that the subpoena was the \u201cnext step in the normal investigative process\u201d and that it seeks \u201crecords identifying persons with relevant knowledge.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Kamal Ghali, a lawyer for the county, argued that the subpoena \u201cwill chill participation by election workers\u201d and that the statute of limitations for any of the alleged misconduct had already lapsed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Justice Department lawyer William McComb said the statute of limitations issue is not relevant at the investigative stage. The point of the investigation is to figure out what charges can be brought, he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cMy point is, as we sit here now, we are not sure what charges can be brought. That&#8217;s the whole point of the investigation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The request for election workers&#8217; contact information, McComb said, \u201cwould simply be a pathway to determine and speak with and interview certain individuals who worked at the polls who may have seen, heard or done something in and of themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">During a hearing in May, the judge said he was going to focus on whether the federal government\u2019s request for the election worker contact information was reasonable.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cYou know, an overly broad fishing expedition is bad and is not allowed,\u201d Ray said. \u201cBut one that\u2019s not overly broad is kind of okay. And the question is, how do we \u2014 how does \u2014 how do I as a judge decide when does it go too far?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ATLANTA &#8212; The U.S. Department of Justice cannot have the names and personal contact information for every person who worked during the 2020 election in Georgia\u2019s Fulton County, a federal judge ruled Tuesday. The Justice Department in April obtained a grand jury subpoena seeking the names and personal contact information of county employees and volunteer&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1371,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/s.abcnews.com\/images\/US\/abc_news_default_2000x2000_update_16x9_992.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}