Overview
- A federal judge quashed the Justice Department’s April grand jury subpoena on Tuesday, blocking a request for names, home addresses, phone numbers and emails for nearly 3,000 people who worked the 2020 election in Fulton County.
- Judge William M. Ray described the subpoena’s breadth as “staggering,” wrote that disclosing the information would chill future election participation, and found the likely expiration of statutes of limitations weakens any prosecutorial need for the data.
- The ruling does not end the larger probe: FBI agents who seized hundreds of boxes of 2020 ballots in January retain the materials while federal staff continue reviewing records, and the DOJ says it is weighing legal options to challenge the order.
- Fulton County lawyers told the court the disclosure would expose workers who have faced threats since 2020 and was intended to target political opponents, and the judge questioned whether the subpoena was properly tied to the local grand jury.
- Legal experts say the decision narrows how courts will balance grand jury power against privacy and prosecutorial need, a restraint that could affect future requests for mass personal data and the recruitment of local election workers.