Search warrant FBI served at elections office near Atlanta seeks records tied to the 2020 elections

ATLANTA (AP) — The FBI on Wednesday searched the election office of a Georgia county that has been central to right-wing conspiracy theories over President Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss, acting just one week after the Republican leader predicted prosecutions over a contest he has baselessly insisted was tainted by widespread fraud.

The search at Fulton County’s main election facility in Union City sought records related to the 2020 election. It appeared to be the most public step by law enforcement to pursue Trump’s claims of a stolen election, grievances rejected time and again by courts and state and federal officials, who found no evidence of fraud that would have altered the outcome.

It also unfolds against the backdrop of FBI and Justice Department efforts to investigate perceived political enemies of Trump, including former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Trump has for years focused on Fulton, Georgia’s most populous county and a Democratic stronghold, as a key example of what he claims went wrong in the 2020 election. His pressure campaign there culminated in a sweeping state indictment accusing him and 18 others of illegally trying to overturn the vote.

FBI agents secured an area around the large warehouse building that houses the county elections hub with yellow tape and could be seen loading boxes from the building into trucks. FBI spokesperson Jenna Sellitto confirmed that the boxes contained ballots. Among the 2020 election documents sought are ballots, tabulator tapes from the scanners used to tally the ballots, electronic ballot images and voter rolls.

An FBI spokesperson said agents were “executing a court authorized law enforcement action” at the county’s main election office in Union City, just south of Atlanta. The spokesperson declined to provide any further information, citing an ongoing matter.

State and county Democratic officials expressed concern about the search and ballot seizures.

“We don't know why they took them, and we don't know where they're taking them to,” county Board of Commissioners Chairman Robb Pitts said.

The Justice Department had no immediate comment. FBI Co-Deputy Director Andrew Bailey and U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard were seen onsite.

Trump has long insisted that the 2020 election was stolen even though judges across the country and his own attorney general said they found no evidence of widespread fault that tipped the contest in Democrat Joe Biden’s favor.

The president has made Georgia, one of the battleground states he lost in 2020, a central target for his complaints about the election and memorably pushed its secretary of state to help “find” enough votes to overturn the contest.

Last week, in reference to the 2020 election, he asserted that “people will soon be prosecuted for what they did.” It was not clear what in particular he was referring to.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in August 2023 obtained an indictment against Trump and 18 others, accusing them of participating in a wide-ranging scheme to illegally try to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. That case was dismissed in Novembe r after courts barred Willis and her office from pursuing it because of an “appearance of impropriety” stemming from a romantic relationship she had with a prosecutor she had hired to lead the case.

The FBI last week moved to replace its top agent in Atlanta, Paul W. Brown, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a non-public personnel decision. It was not immediately clear why the move, which was not publicized by the FBI, was made.

The warrant is a criminal document, but the Justice Department last month sued the clerk of the Fulton County superior and magistrate courts in federal court seeking access to documents from the 2020 election in the county. The lawsuit said the department sent a letter to the clerk, Che Alexander, but that she had failed to produce the requested documents.

Alexander has filed a motion to dismiss the suit. The Justice Department complaint says that the purpose of its request was “ascertaining Georgia’s compliance with various federal election laws.” It also says the attorney general is trying to help the State Election Board with its “transparency efforts under Georgia law.”

A three-person conservative majority on the State Election Board has repeatedly sought to reopen a case alleging wrongdoing by Fulton County during the 2020 election. It passed a resolution in July seeking assistance from the U.S. attorney general to access voting materials.

The state board sent subpoenas to the county board for various election documents last year and again on Oct. 6. The October subpoena requested “all used and void ballots, stubs of all ballots, signature envelopes, and corresponding envelope digital files from the 2020 General Election in Fulton County.” A fight over the state board's efforts to enforce the 2024 subpoena is currently tied up in court.

The Justice Department sent a letter to the county election board Oct. 30 citing the federal Civil Rights Act and asking for all records responsive to the October subpoena from the State Election Board. Lawyers for the county election board responded about two weeks later, saying that the records are held by the county court clerk. They also attached a letter the clerk sent to the State Election Board saying that the records are under seal in accordance with state law and can’t be released without a court order.

The Justice Department said it then sent a letter to Alexander, the clerk, on Nov. 21 requesting the documents and that she failed to respond.

The department is asking a judge to declare that the clerk’s “refusal to provide the election records upon a demand by the Attorney General” violates the Civil Rights Act. It is also asking the judge to order Alexander to produce the requested records within five days of a court order.

Associated Press writer Eric Tucker in Washington and photographer Mike Stewart in Union City, Georgia, contributed.

Georgia General Election 2020 ballots are loaded by the FBI onto trucks at the Fulton County Election HUB, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, in Union City, Ga., near Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

The Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center, is seen Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, in Union City, Ga, near Atlanta, as FBI agents search at the main election facility. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

The Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center, is seen Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, in Union City, Ga, near Atlanta, as FBI agents search at the main election facility. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

FBI officers are seen at the Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, in Union City, Ga, near Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

FBI officers are seen at the Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, in Union City, Ga, near Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

FBI officers are seen at the Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, in Union City, Ga, near Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Police vehicles are seen outside the Fulton County elections hub in Union City, Ga., Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilie Megnien)

FBI officers are seen at the Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, in Union City, Ga, near Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

FBI officers are seen at the Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, in Union City, Ga, near Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

A crime scene tape is seen as FBI agents search at the Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, in Union City, Ga, near Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Fulton County Commissioner Marvin S. Arrington, Jr., walks with other elected officials, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, in Union City, Ga., near Atlanta, as FBI agents search at the Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

FBI officers are seen at the Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, in Union City, Ga, near Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

FBI agents are seen at the Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, in Union City, Ga, near Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

An FBI press office person approaches the Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, in Union City, Ga. (Arvin Temka/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

FILE - An FBI seal is displayed on a podium before a news conference in Portland, Ore., Jan. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File)

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — A Texas man who once escaped custody and spent three days on the run after being sentenced to death for fatally shooting his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend was put to death Wednesday, becoming the first person executed in the United States this year.

Charles Victor Thompson, 55, was pronounced dead at 6:50 p.m. CST following a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. He was condemned for the April 1998 shooting deaths of his ex-girlfriend, Glenda Dennise Hayslip, 39, and her new boyfriend, Darren Keith Cain, 30, at the woman's suburban Houston apartment.

In his final words, Thompson asked the families of his victims find it in their hearts to forgive him, adding “that you can begin to heal and move past this.”

“There are no winners in this situation,” he said after a spiritual adviser prayed over him for about 3 minutes and shortly before a lethal dose of pentobarbital was administered. He said his execution “creates more victims and traumatizes more people 28 years later.”

“I’m sorry for what I did. I’m sorry for what happened, and I want to tell all of y’all, I love you and that keep Jesus in your life, keep Jesus first,” he added.

As the injection began taking effect, Thompson gasped loudly, then took about a dozen breaths that evolved into three snores. Then all movement ceased and he was pronounced dead 22 minutes later.

Prosecutors had said Thompson and Hayslip had been romantically involved for a year but split after Thompson “became increasingly possessive, jealous and abusive.”

According to court records, Hayslip and Cain were dating when Thompson came to Hayslip’s apartment and began arguing with Cain around 3 a.m. the night of the killings. Police were called and told Thompson to leave the apartment complex. He returned three hours later and shot both Hayslip and Cain.

Cain died at the scene, and Hayslip died in a hospital a week later.

“The Hayslip and Cain families have waited over twenty-five years for justice to occur,” prosecutors with the Harris County District Attorney’s Office said in court filings.

About an hour before the scheduled 6 p.m. execution, the U.S. Supreme Court — without explanation — issued a brief order rejecting Thompson’s final appeal. On Monday, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles had denied Thompson’s request to commute his death sentence to a lesser penalty.

Thompson’s attorneys had argued in filings with the Supreme Court that he was not allowed to refute or confront the prosecution’s evidence that concluded Hayslip died from a gunshot wound to the face. Thompson’s attorneys argued that Hayslip actually died from flawed medical care she received after the shooting that resulted in severe brain damage sustained from oxygen deprivation following a failed intubation.

Prosecutors had said a jury had already rejected the claim by Thompson and decided under state law he was responsible for Hayslip’s death because it “would not have occurred but for his conduct.”

Hayslip’s family had filed a lawsuit against one of her doctors, alleging that medical negligence during her treatment left her brain-dead. A jury in 2002 found in favor of the doctor.

Thompson had his original death sentence overturned and a new punishment trial was held in November 2005. A jury again ordered him to die by lethal injection.

Shortly after being resentenced, Thompson escaped from the Harris County Jail in Houston by walking out the front door virtually unchallenged by deputies. He later told The Associated Press that after meeting with his attorney in a small interview cell, he slipped out of his handcuffs and orange jail jumpsuit and left the room, which was unlocked. Thompson waived an ID badge fashioned out of his prison ID card to get past several deputies.

“I got to smell the trees, feel the wind in my hair, grass under my feet, see the stars at night. It took me straight back to childhood being outside on a summer night,” Thompson said of his time on the run, speaking with AP in a 2005 interview. He was arrested in Shreveport, Louisiana, while trying to arrange for wire transfers of money from overseas so he could make it to Canada.

Texas has historically held more executions than any other state though Florida had the most in 2025 with 19. The next execution in the U.S. is scheduled to be the Feb. 10 lethal injection of Ronald Palmer Health, who was convicted of killing a traveling salesman during a 1989 robbery in the Gainesville area of that state.

Lozano reported from Houston. Follow Juan A. Lozano: https://x.com/juanlozano70

This photo provided by Texas Department of Criminal Justice. shows Texas death row inmate Charles Victor Thompson. (Texas Department of Criminal Justice via AP)