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A federal judge on Tuesday denied the Justice Department’s request for personal information from election workers in Fulton County, Ga., as part of its investigation into President Trump’s unsubstantiated claims of widespread election fraud in the 2020 election.
U.S. District Judge William Ray found in his order that the DOJ could not use a Grand Jury subpoena “as their tool” to investigate these fraud claims, nor could they subpoena private information “with no legitimate law enforcement purpose.”
Ray called the government’s April request “staggering,” noting that it asked for personal details including workers’ names, positions, residential and email addresses and personal cell phone numbers.
“The information sought herein … is private and sensitive, so much so that should a private company fail to protect such information from electronic thieves, such company would most likely be sued in a data breach class action lawsuit,” the judge wrote.
“Thus, 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’s ability to utilize the power of the Grand Jury to appropriate your private information without a legitimate purpose,” Ray continued.
The Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections noted in their May objection to the DOJ’s subpoena that the information request would apply to “thousands of employees and volunteers” who worked on this election day.
Ray noted that his Tuesday order makes no opinion on the DOJ’s “legitimate interest” in investigating alleged fraud in the 2020 election.
“In 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 ‘light’ should be brought to those claims,” he wrote.
Fulton County has been at the heart of the president’s claims of election fraud and his insistence that he was the true winner of the 2020 presidential election. Since the beginning of his second term in office, Trump has pushed for further investigation into alleged mishandling of ballots in this Georgia county.
In January, the FBI conducted a raid on a county elections office, in which federal agents searched for ballots, voting machine tabulator tapes, ballot images and voter rolls. The raid followed a DOJ complaint requesting these election materials.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called the court’s order an “important win” in a Tuesday statement shared on social media, but he cautioned that the Trump administration will continue to pursue this fraud investigation.
“We know Trump will do whatever he can to rig the elections and that his attack dog at the DOJ, [acting Attorney General] Todd Blanche, will do his bidding,” Schumer wrote. “I will continue to lead Democrats in using every avenue to stop these anti-democratic efforts at every turn.”
The Hill has reached out to the DOJ for comment.
Add as preferred source on Google Tags Chuck Schumer Donald Trump Justice Department President Trump Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer Todd Blanche U.S. District Judge William RayCopyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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