Pitts v. United States — Seizure of Election Records (GA)

On January 28, 2026, the FBI raided the elections warehouse in Fulton County, Georgia, and seized more than 600 boxes of records from the 2020 election.

Just a few days later, Robb Pitts, the chairman of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, sued the Trump administration on behalf of the county. The county argued that the seizure of the records lacked probable cause under the Fourth Amendment and violated Georgia’s constitutional right to administer elections. Fulton County is asking the judge to order the administration to return all of the seized materials.

The affidavit that led to the raid was later made public and revealed that the FBI relied on debunked claims of irregularities in the election. The baseless claims match those featured in a January 2026 report by the Election Oversight Group (EOG), which includes known election skeptics.

States United published its own report authored by three election experts and scholars, rebutting the claims in the EOG’s report in detail.

On April 13, four of the authors of the EOG’s report filed an amicus brief in the case that repeated many of the claims rebutted in States United’s report and arguing that the FBI’s seizure was proper due to supposed improprieties in the 2020 election in Fulton County.

On April 24, the co-authors of States United’s report filed an amicus brief of their own, detailing critical flaws in the EOG’s brief and explaining the extensive safeguards that kept the 2020 election fair, secure, and accurate.

The experts—Justin Grimmer, Professor of Political Science at Stanford University and a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution; Stephen Richer, the former recorder of Maricopa County, Arizona; and Ryan Germany, former General Counsel for the Georgia Secretary of State—write that the EOG’s brief has many of the same flaws as their report, neither of which provides a reliable analysis of the 2020 election.

“The EOG Report relies on faulty and inadequate evidence, unsupported claims, meaningless comparisons, omissions and misreadings of primary sources, misunderstandings of election laws, and disregard for the election safeguards in place in 2020,” the experts’ brief reads. “The EOG Amicus, in turn, is no better.”

Fulton County’s motion for the return of seized election materials is currently pending before the court, which has indicated that it will issue a ruling after April 27, 2026.

• Amicus brief (filed April 24, 2026)
• Report on the “Election Oversight Group” Allegations About the 2020 Election in Fulton County, Georgia (published April 8, 2026)
• Emergency Motion for Return of Property (filed Feb. 5, 2026)

• The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Fulton says DOJ may have improperly coordinated efforts to get 2020 records (April 7, 2026)
• Georgia Recorder: FBI raid in Fulton County relied on previously investigated 2020 election claims (Feb. 10, 2026)
• The Associated Press via WABE: Fulton County seeks return of 2020 election documents seized by FBI (Feb. 4, 2026)