The Justice Department has demanded that everyone who worked on the 2020 election in Fulton County, Ga., according to court records, ramp up an ongoing investigation into the 2020 vote in Georgia’s most populous county relying on false and misleading claims.
The demand is aimed at Fulton County election workers and volunteer poll workers, who may number in the thousands for the 2020 election, according to court records.
The demand, which came through a federal grand jury subpoena, appears to be the latest attempt by President Trump and his administration to use the federal government’s investigative powers to pursue false allegations that the 2020 election was rigged. With midterm voting underway in many states, including Georgia, the effort risks eroding public confidence and sowing confusion among voters.
It is not known what the Department of Justice intends to do with the names of election workers. A spokesman for the Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Robb Pitts, chairman of the Fulton County commission, issued a statement Monday calling the court action “harassment” and “another outrageous act designed to intimidate and influence electioneering.”
He added: “Let me be clear. Fulton County will not be afraid.
Earlier this year, agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided an election warehouse in the county, seizing physical ballots for the 2020 election and other election materials. County officials have since filed a lawsuit to force the Justice Department to return those resources. The federal judge’s decision on that case could come out at any time.
The district received a subpoena for the employees’ names on April 20, according to court records. The existence of the subpoena became public Monday evening, when Fulton County attorneys filed a motion to block it.
“Its purpose is to identify, harass, and punish those who are considered political opponents of the President,” said the district proposal.
The district board argued that the subpoena “cannot produce evidence that would lead to criminal prosecution” because, among other things, statutes of limitations have expired “for any 2020 election cases.”
The county also asserted that the subpoena required the disclosure of the names, positions, email addresses and personal phone numbers of ten categories of Fulton County election workers. At a time when “election workers fear for their safety,” it will work for volunteers, temporary workers and bus drivers who had a mobile polling station, the county said in a statement.
Lauren Groh-Wargo, who heads Fair Fight Action, a left-leaning voting rights group, said election workers across the country are facing increased threats and harassment.
“Approximately a third of election officials are threatened at work, and more than half are concerned that it makes it difficult to hire and retain election workers,” said Mrs. Groh-Wargo in a statement on Monday. “They are trying to break our democracy by attacking the infrastructure, but we are fighting hard.”
Fulton County, which includes most of Atlanta, is a Democratic stronghold and the most populous county in Georgia. The unsubstantiated claim that county election workers somehow helped Democrats steal the 2020 election was a major part of a broader but ultimately fruitless effort by Mr. Trump and his supporters to reverse the victory of Joseph R. Biden Jr.
In December 2020, Trump ally Rudolph W. Giuliani, who served as Mr. Trump at that time, went before the legislative committee of the state of Georgia and made many false allegations against two poll workers, Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Shaye Moss.
The women were processing returns on election night. Mr. Giuliani and others falsely accused the women of taking thousands of fake ballots out of suitcases at their counting station and illegally feeding them through voting machines.
That episode was included in the 2023 criminal case against Mr. Trump, Mr. Giuliani and 17 others filed by Fani T. Willis, district attorney for Fulton County, Ga. The case was dismissed in late 2025 after Ms Willis was disqualified from handling it.
Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss won a total of $148 million in defamation against Mr. Giuliani. The lawsuit was settled for an undisclosed amount.
In the current investigation into Fulton County, which began with a court-ordered seizure of election materials from a county warehouse, the FBI has so far not named any election workers, let alone publicly accused them of wrongdoing.
The district noted in its proposal that President Trump has for years been “psychologically spreading the idea that Fulton County has ‘stolen’ the 2020 election from him.
The proposal cited a 2025 website where the president said Ruby Freeman “must return Rudy’s compensation” and called for her and top Georgia officials to be prosecuted for “the political crime of the century.”
