A federal judge in Atlanta on Tuesday blocked a Department of Justice subpoena seeking the names of election workers in Fulton County, Georgia, from the 2020 election.
President Donald Trump has falsely claimed for years that he actually won Georgia's 2020 presidential election and has focused his allegations of ballot fraud on the count conducted in Fulton County, whose biggest city is Atlanta.
"The Subpoena requests disclosure of personal identifying information of thousands of employees and volunteers who participated in activities related to the 2020 Election," Judge William Ray wrote in his order quashing the DOJ subpoena.
"Such a large disclosure of information threatens to chill participation in future elections, which will surely impact Fulton County," wrote Ray, who was appointed by Trump to U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia in 2018.
The Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections had sought to block the subpoena, arguing that its purpose was to "target, harass, and punish" Trump's perceived political opponents.
Trump was previously prosecuted by the Fulton County District Attorney's Office for crimes related to trying to reverse his loss in the 2020 election in Georgia to former President Joe Biden. That case was dismissed in 2025 after DA Fani Willis was disqualified from handling it.
Trump has repeatedly suggested that there is widespread ballot fraud in elections, even in those he has won. Critics say such rhetoric undermines public confidence in election results.
The DOJ argued to the judge it is investigating potential criminal actions after the 2020 Election, "including an alleged failure on the part of Fulton County to preserve its ballot images from 2020 for the time required by law," Ray noted.
But the "breadth of the Grand Jury Subpoena... is staggering," he wrote.
"So, is there anything wrong with the DOJ using the Grand Jury to subpoena these records from Fulton County? In this Court's view, yes," Ray wrote.
"These records, even if they lead to the DOJ finding individuals who worked for Fulton County in the 2020 Election who support the theory that the 2020 Election was not fair, would not lead to information that could be used to charge anyone with anything, at least not any viable charge."
He noted that the statute of limitations for any possible crime related to the 2020 election "has long expired."
"Everyone, whether you support the President or you do not, or whether you believe the 2020 Election was fair or believe that it was not, should be concerned about the DOJ's ability to utilize the power of the Grand Jury to appropriate your private information without a legitimate purpose," Ray wrote.
The judge said that nothing would prevent the DOJ from continuing to investigate claims by Trump and others that there was ballot fraud in the 2020 election.
"It is just that the power of the Grand Jury, which exists to investigate potential crimes and to bring viable indictments thereof, cannot be used as their tool to do so," Ray wrote.
