{"id":3404,"date":"2026-07-08T19:35:52","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T19:35:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=3404"},"modified":"2026-07-08T19:35:52","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T19:35:52","slug":"judge-rejects-justice-department-attempt-to-get-names-of-2020-election-workers-in-fulton-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=3404","title":{"rendered":"Judge rejects Justice Department attempt to get names of 2020 election workers in Fulton County"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><p><strong>ATLANTA<\/strong> | 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.<\/p>\n<p>The Justice Department served a grand jury subpoena in April seeking the names and personal contact information of county employees and volunteer poll workers. President Donald Trump has long claimed without evidence that widespread voter fraud in Georgia\u2019s most populous county, a Democratic stronghold, cost him victory in the state in 2020.<\/p>\n<p>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<div><\/div>\n<p>\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, calling the scope of the request \u201cstaggering.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are proud of our efforts to push back against these improper demands that only serve to undermine confidence in our elections,\u201d Fulton County Attorney Soo Jo said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>An email seeking comment was sent to the Justice Department.<\/p>\n<p>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 wrote Ray, who was nominated to the bench by Trump.<\/p>\n<p>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\u2019t be used to charge anyone because the statute of limitations has passed, Ray wrote.<\/p>\n<p>The subpoena came after the FBI in January served a search warrant at the Fulton County election hub and seized hundreds of boxes of ballots and other documents from the 2020 election. A federal judge in May denied the county\u2019s request to force the federal government to return the ballots.<\/p>\n<p>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>Kamal Ghali, a lawyer for the county, argued during a hearing in May 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>Justice Department lawyer William McComb argued that the statute of limitations issue is not relevant at the investigative stage.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy point is, as we sit here now, we are not sure what charges can be brought. That\u2019s the whole point of the investigation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The FBI is also using some 260 staffers across the country to help examine records in the Fulton County investigation, according to an agency memo.<\/p>\n<p>The judge noted that the Justice Department had expressed concern about possible criminal actions in the years that followed the election. But he noted that the subpoena seeks information related to what happened during the 2020 election and its immediate aftermath.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn these hyper-political times in which we currently live, there are sure to be some who disagree with this decision because they believe the allegations of fraud in the 2020 Election and believe that \u2018light\u2019 should be brought to those claims,\u201d Ray wrote.<\/p>\n<p>He added that nothing prevents continued investigation into those allegations by people who believe those claims \u2014 such as Congress or even the Justice Department \u2014 but the power of the grand jury, \u201cwhich exists to investigate potential crimes and to bring viable indictments\u201d cannot be used for that purpose. Otherwise, anyone in power could use the grand jury process to subpoena personal information of citizens \u201cwith no legitimate law enforcement purpose,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThus, everyone, whether you support the President or you do not, or whether you believe the 2020 Election was fair or believe that it was not, should be concerned about the DOJ\u2019s ability to utilize the power of the Grand Jury to appropriate your private information without a legitimate purpose,\u201d Ray wrote.<\/p>\n<p>The judge also agreed that providing the subpoenaed information could make it harder for Fulton County to recruit election workers. Those who help run elections \u201cshould be valued and are necessary for successful elections in Fulton County going forward,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=3398\">Trump says the U.S. will give license to Ukraine to produce Patriot defense systems<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=3400\">DNA evidence from Charlie Kirk assassination disputed by defendant\u2019s lawyers<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=3402\">Federal immigration agent fatally shoots man in Houston during an enforcement operation<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ATLANTA | 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 served a grand jury subpoena in April seeking the names and personal contact information of county employees and volunteer [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3403,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1101,1093,1094,1133,1134,67,1103,63,1144],"tags":[5483,5484,5485,5486,252,5487,4663],"class_list":["post-3404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-0-no-apple-publish","category-0recent-headlines","category-0trending","category-1gridnation","category-1gridnationandstate","category-nation","category-uncategorized","category-world","category-z-ntl-galley","tag-federal-judge-william-ray","tag-fulton-county","tag-fulton-county-attorney","tag-kamal-ghali","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-soo-jo","tag-u-s-department-of-justice"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Judge rejects Justice Department attempt to get names of 2020 election workers in Fulton County - Denver Moving Chronicle<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=3404\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Judge rejects Justice Department attempt to get names of 2020 election workers in Fulton County - Denver Moving Chronicle\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"ATLANTA | 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. 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