Signal FBI orders 260 staffers to Georgia to assist with 2020 election investigation

Summary

The FBI directed roughly 260 additional staff to Fulton County, Georgia to support an investigation into the 2020 election, describing the effort in an internal memo as a "priority investigation." Each assigned staffer was instructed to review approximately 708 records by July 17. The surge follows a January 2026 search in which the FBI executed a warrant seeking "all physical ballots," vote-tabulation tapes, ballot images and voter rolls, seizing roughly 700 boxes of election materials, with Deputy FBI Director Andrew Bailey and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard both seen at the scene. In April, the Justice Department separately subpoenaed the Fulton County elections board for the names, addresses and contact information of 2020 election staff and volunteers. The probe stems from a referral by Kurt Olsen, a 2020 election denier appointed by the White House to review that election. Despite the renewed investigation, Trump lost Georgia by 11,799 votes in 2020, a result confirmed by both a machine recount and a hand recount in every county.