The unsealing of the FBI’s search warrant affidavit for its raid of a Fulton County, Georgia, election facility prompted swift condemnation from voting rights advocates, election experts and former federal officials, who say the document relies on debunked conspiracy theories and fails to establish probable cause.
The affidavit, released Tuesday after a court order, laid out the government’s justification for seizing ballots and other election materials from Fulton County’s election operations center — records from the certified 2020 presidential election that have already been reviewed through multiple audits, recounts and investigations.
But legal experts said the affidavit revealed more about the weakness of the government’s case than its strength.
“This affidavit is built almost entirely on a series of ‘ifs’ rather than concrete facts. It’s hard to see how the contents of this affidavit rise to the level of probable cause,” Joyce Vance, a former U.S. attorney, said during a press conference for pro-voting group Fair Fight Action. “Omitting material facts that negate probable cause makes this a problematic affidavit.”
Vance stressed that the Fourth Amendment imposes a clear duty on prosecutors seeking a search warrant — one the Justice Department likely did not meet.
“The Fourth Amendment requires prosecutors to include facts that could negate probable cause,” she said. “There is no meaningful effort by the government to present both sides or acknowledge facts that would undermine the government’s case.”
Other former Justice Department officials echoed those concerns, pointing to what they described as glaring omissions regarding the reliability of witnesses.
“I didn’t see anything in my first read of this about the sources’ credibility – their views of the election, anything that would suggest bias, motive, inaccuracies – and that’s exactly what you have to put in,” Andrew Weissmann, former General Counsel for the FBI, Chief of the Criminal Fraud Section of the DOJ, and Assistant United States Attorney, said. “In the DOJ I worked in, under Republican and Democratic administrations, this is the kind of thing supervisors flag and send back. I just don’t know that I can think of another warrant where I’ve not seen such information about the sources of information included. That’s not normal, especially in something this high profile.”
Meanwhile, election experts said the affidavit fails to allege the basic elements typically required to justify such an extraordinary search.
“This affidavit was much weaker than I suspected. No allegations of intent. No allegations of election theft. No allegations of foreign interference. No allegations that the statute of limitations doesn’t apply,” David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, wrote. “At worst, it alleges human error, during a pandemic, that didn’t affect the outcome.”
Election officials also rejected the affidavit’s conspiracy-based claims, noting that many had already been investigated and resolved years ago.
“Every allegation in this affidavit has already been presented to the Georgia State Election Board and investigated. These issues have been discussed extensively and resolved,” Sara Tindall Ghazal, Democratic member of the Georgia State Election Board, said. “Individuals cited as experts in this affidavit have been disqualified by courts, yet their names appear without even being redacted. This affidavit relies on conspiracy theorists whose claims have been flatly rejected as not credible. It is an absolute travesty.”
Other elected officials raised separate concerns after the affidavit confirmed there was no allegation of foreign interference — despite the presence of the nation’s top intelligence official, Tulsi Gabbard, during the raid.
“The newly unsealed affidavit shows this search originated from the frivolous claims of Kurt Olsen, an attorney who trafficked in debunked falsehoods about the 2020 election. It also makes clear there was no foreign intelligence nexus,” U.S. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), vice chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said in a statement. “When the nation’s top intelligence official inserts herself into a matter with no connection to a foreign threat, it’s hard to escape the conclusion that the objective was political — namely, getting back into Donald Trump’s good graces — and that her presence was meant to lay the groundwork for baseless claims of foreign interference.”
Former Department of Homeland Security official Miles Taylor said the affidavit underscored fears about the FBI’s factual basis, or lack thereof.
“The basis for the FBI raid in Fulton County appears to be a lot of previously disproven allegations,” Taylor wrote. “In other words, the federal government seized the private ballots of American citizens based — at least in part — on conspiracy theories.”
Election analysts simultaneously questioned how the affidavit cleared the legal threshold required for a search warrant.
“It’s largely based on complaints already made either in court or before the Georgia State Election Board,” Stephen Richer, a former Arizona election official, posted. “It does not name any alleged criminals (redacted or otherwise). It gives no insight into who they think might have committed a crime.”
Richer added that the witnesses cited were “largely drawn from the MAGA people on the Georgia State Election Board and then election-fraud hobbyists.”
Legal analyst Harry Litman said the affidavit raised more questions than it answered.
“In Fulton County, there had been a mystery as to what the evidence that the magistrate used to find probable cause would look like. Now there’s a new mystery,” Litman said. “How in the world did the magistrate approve this bunch of recycled and discredited allegations to find probable cause?”
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) dismissed the affidavit’s claims outright.
“As Secretary of State, I’ve made Georgia the safest and most secure place to vote,” Raffensperger said. “Instead of wasting time and tax dollars trying to change the past with baseless and repackaged claims, let’s focus our efforts on building a safer, more affordable future for all hardworking Georgians.”
For voting rights advocates, the affidavit has reinforced fears that the FBI’s unprecedented seizure of election materials was not about uncovering new evidence — but about resurrecting a false narrative that courts and election officials have already put to rest.
“Now we can say definitively: the right‑wing conspiracy theorists who took credit for the Fulton ‘report’ are underlying this affidavit. These are grifters and conspiracy theorists – and now they’ve plugged themselves into the top levels of Trump’s DOJ. This is just rehashed conspiracy theories and debunked lies dressed up as ‘evidence,’” Lauren Groh-Wargo, CEO of Fair Fight Action, said. “Why are they doing this? Trump wants to get his hands on our votes. He said Republicans should run elections. This is a power grab, creating a pretense to interfere in the 2026 elections.”
Jen Rice contributed to this reporting.