United States Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard steps out of a vehicle outside the Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center, January 28, 2026. REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage
David Becker, the founder and director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, told CNN that he has no idea how a federal judge signed off on President Donald Trump's latest attempt to relitigate the 2020 election by going after ballots in Fulton County.
Speaking on Thursday, Becker discussed the new Republican voter registration bill that would significantly limit voting rights by requiring advanced forms of I.D. to cast a ballot.
When host Pamela Brown turned Georgia, she asked for details about the sworn affidavits submitted by FBI agents who claimed they had "reasonable suspicion" to conduct a raid on the Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center last month.
The statute of limitations on the 2020 election has already expired. Still, a judge granted the search warrant.
"I have no idea how it was signed off on. When I heard they were unsealing the affidavit, I was actually expecting — even though we knew there would be no actual reality of a crime there, those ballots have been counted multiple times — but I was wondering what the administration would use that was new, that would justify these claims," said Becker.
He said that there was "nothing."
"There was no allegation of intent, which is a necessary element of the crime. In fact, they admit there's no intent that's evident at all," said Becker.
"There's no allegation that there was an election theft, even. In fact, they admit that those ballots themselves were counted multiple times and confirmed the results," he added. "There's no allegation of foreign interference or foreign nexus of any kind, which again, raises questions why the Director of National Intelligence was inside that facility during the execution of the search warrant."
Becker said he expected the affidavit to provide some basis for why the statute of limitations needed to be lifted, but it didn't do that either.
"For some reason, because of some subsequent activity, and there was no mention of the statute of limitations at all in there, and it really raises the question, given that these were conspiracy theories that had been resolved years and years ago," he said.
In 2020 and the years that followed, Becker recalled the conspiracy theories that were dismissed in courts all over the country.
There will be an evidentiary hearing before a federal judge on Feb. 27. Fulton County has sued to compel the return of the ballots.