2026年3月27日 / 美国东部时间上午6:00 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
佐治亚州富尔顿县的律师定于周五在联邦法院为要求归还650多箱与2020年选举相关的材料进行辩论。此前，联邦调查局(FBI)上个月在执行搜查令时，从该县选举办公室扣押了这些箱子。
上个月，联邦调查局在富尔顿县选举办公室执行了搜查令，试图调取”2020年选举的所有实体选票”，以及计票机的录音带、选票图像和选民名单。
搜查之后，富尔顿县委员会主席罗布·皮茨(Robb Pitts)和该县登记与选举委员会提起诉讼，要求强制归还这些箱子。该县要求”归还所有原始扣押材料”，并请求法官下令政府”在此事解决前保存而非审查任何扣押材料的副本”。
富尔顿县在法庭文件中称，司法部对文件的搜查和扣押”漠视了该县多项第四修正案权利”，是对州级选举职责的”严重侵犯”。该县要求美国地区法官Jean-Paul Boulee下令归还所有文件。
Boulee法官于2019年由特朗普总统提名进入联邦法院任职。
周四，Boulee法官裁定，不会强迫提交支持搜查富尔顿县选举中心的宣誓书的FBI探员在听证会上作证。此前，该县试图强迫他在法庭上谈论这份宣誓书。
Boulee法官称，上个月他曾试图促使富尔顿县和司法部通过调解解决纠纷，而非诉诸法庭，但调解失败，导致周五的听证会成为必要。
在周五证据听证会前的法庭文件中，司法部辩称，富尔顿县的目的是”通过提交文件干扰正在进行的联邦调查”，并要求Boulee法官驳回该县的动议。
该县辩称，政府的行为”剥夺了请愿人的宪法权利”，”如果这些记录不归还其合法保管人，所造成的伤害将持续下去”。
司法部表示，他们”极其谨慎地”处理了该县提出的任何第四修正案关切，并指出搜查是”在获得治安法官基于可能原因确定的搜查令后”进行的。
在法庭文件中，司法部称其正在调查”该县2020年总统选举中出现的违规行为”，重点关注选举记录是否得到妥善保存，以及2020年是否存在”欺诈选票的采购、投票或计票”。
本月早些时候解密的一份FBI探员宣誓书详细说明了搜查的法律依据，还称FBI的调查是在一名曾致力于推翻2020年选举结果的律师的举报后展开的。
该县在文件中表示：”尽管对2020年选举进行了多年调查，但宣誓书并未提出能证明任何人犯罪的事实。相反，FBI特别探员Evans（宣誓人）几乎承认，只有在某些假设成立的情况下，扣押才能产生犯罪证据。”
“缺乏可能原因支持且依赖未经证实的假设，被告方的扣押行为违反了第四修正案。”
佐治亚州州官员，包括共和党州长和州务卿，多年来一直捍卫2020年选举的公正性，指出有三次独立计票结果均确认乔·拜登击败了特朗普总统。2020年选举结果是特朗普试图推翻选举的核心焦点，而包括亚特兰大在内的富尔顿县是民主党的关键票仓。
宣誓书称，此次调查源于Kurt Olsen的举报。FBI将Olsen描述为”总统任命的选举安全与诚信主任”。2020年，Olsen是一名律师，曾与德克萨斯州总检察长Ken Paxton合作，敦促最高法院推翻选举结果。
2022年，Olsen被众议院1月6日委员会传唤，该委员会正在调查2020年选举后果和2021年1月6日美国国会山袭击事件。传票指控Olsen”在总统指示下联系司法部多位高级官员，讨论对选举结果提出质疑”。委员会称，Olsen在2021年1月6日与特朗普进行了多次通话。
Judge to hear arguments from Fulton County seeking return of 2020 election material seized by FBI
March 27, 2026 / 6:00 AM EDT / CBS News
Attorneys for Fulton County, Georgia, are set to argue in federal court Friday for the return of over 650 boxes of material related to the 2020 election after the FBI seized the boxes at the county’s elections office last month while executing a search warrant.
Last month, the FBI executed a search warrant at a Fulton County elections office, seeking to take “all physical ballots” from the 2020 vote, as well as tapes from vote-tabulating machines, ballot images and voter rolls.
After the search, Fulton County Commission Chairman Robb Pitts and the county’s Board of Registration and Elections filed a lawsuit to compel the return of the boxes. The county has asked for the “return of all original seized materials” and asked the judge for an order instructing the government “to maintain, but not review, any copies of the seized materials until this matter is resolved.”
Fulton County said in court filings that the Justice Department’s search and seizure of documents “callously disregards multiple Fourth Amendment rights,” of the county and was a “gross intrusion” of the state’s role in elections. The county asked U.S. District Judge Jean-Paul Boulee to order the return of all of the documents.
Boulee was nominated to the federal bench in 2019 by President Trump.
On Thursday, Boulee ruled that he would not force the FBI agent who submitted a sworn affidavit in support of the search of Fulton County’s election hub to testify at the hearing, after the county attempted to force him to speak about the affidavit in court.
Last month, Boulee attempted to force Fulton County and the Justice Department to mediate the dispute instead of going to court, but that mediation failed, Boulee said, resulting in Friday’s hearing becoming a necessity.
In court filings ahead of Friday’s evidentiary hearing, the Justice Department argued that Fulton County’s goal is to “disrupt an ongoing federal investigation” through their filings, and asked Boulee to deny the county’s motion.
The government’s conduct, the county argued, “has deprived Petitioners of their constitutional rights. The resulting injury will continue if these records are not returned to their lawful custodian.”
The Justice Department said it was “scrupulously careful” to comply with any Fourth Amendment concerns raised by the county, and said it searched the county’s election offices “only after obtaining a warrant based on a magistrate judge’s probable-cause determination.”
In court filings, the Justice Department said it is investigating “irregularities that occurred during the 2020 presidential election in the County,” and is centered on if election records were properly maintained, and whether there was “procurement, casting, or tabulation” of fraudulent ballots in 2020.
An affidavit written by an FBI agent unsealed earlier this month detailed the legal basis for the search, and also said the FBI investigation was initiated following a referral from an attorney who worked to overturn the election results in 2020.
“Despite years of investigations of the 2020 election, the Affidavit does not identify facts that establish probable cause that anyone committed a crime. Instead, FBI Special Agent Evans (the “Affiant”) all but admits that the seizure will yield evidence of a crime only if certain hypotheticals are true,” the county argued. “Unsupported by probable cause and dependent on unsubstantiated hypotheticals, Respondent’s seizure violated the Fourth Amendment.”
State officials in Georgia, including the Republican governor and secretary of state, have defended the integrity of the 2020 election for years, noting that three separate counts confirmed that Joe Biden defeated President Trump in the state. The results in Georgia were at the center of Mr. Trump’s efforts to overturn the election, and Fulton County, which includes Atlanta, is a key Democratic stronghold.
The affidavit said the current investigation originated from a referral sent by Kurt Olsen, who the FBI describes as a “Presidentially appointed Director of Election Security and Integrity.” In 2020, Olsen was an attorney who worked with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to urge the Supreme Court to overturn the election results.
In 2022, Olsen was subpoenaed by the House Jan. 6 Committee, which was investigating the aftermath of the 2020 election and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The subpoena alleged that Olsen “contacted various high-level officials at the Department of Justice” at the president’s direction to discuss filing challenges to the election results. The committee said Olsen spoke multiple times with Mr. Trump on Jan. 6, 2021.
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