One of Donald Trump’s attorneys behind the attempt to subvert the 2020 presidential election initiated the investigation that led to the seizure of ballot boxes in Georgia, an unsealed affidavit justifying the search revealed.
“The FBI criminal investigation originated from a referral sent by Kurt Olsen, presidentially appointed Director of Election Security and Integrity,” the affidavit states.
Olsen helped draft the complaint to the Supreme Court in Texas v. Pennsylvania, which unsuccessfully sought to invalidate Trump’s defeat in four states that Joe Biden won.
In a Substack Live conversation, former federal prosecutor Harry Litman and I puzzled over how the probe that Olsen brought passed a federal magistrate’s inspection.
In an affidavit, FBI agent Hugh Raymond Evans claimed that “unknown persons” may have violated two election-related laws: 52 U.S.C. 20701 and 52 U.S.C. 20511, which both have a five-year statute of limitations. The agent offered no theory about who those people may be or what they may have done.
Mostly a rehash of long-rejected conspiracy theories, the affidavit somehow persuaded U.S. Magistrate Judge Catherine Salinas to sign a warrant that led to the seizure of 656 boxes of Fulton County ballots.
Watch the full conversation at the top of this newsletter, and read the affidavit here.
