DOJ Forced to Reveal FBI Timeline in Fulton County Election Raid After Court Order

Following a federal court order, the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Friday released a key timeline detailing the FBI’s criminal investigation and raid of Fulton County’s election offices in Georgia. The timeline sheds new light on how quickly the FBI acted after receiving a criminal referral from Kurt Olsen, a notorious Trump-aligned conspiracy theorist hired by the White House to investigate the 2020 election.

Fulton County, a Democratic stronghold and frequent target of election denial efforts, had been resisting DOJ demands to hand over original ballots and election records. The DOJ initially sought the materials through civil litigation but then escalated to a criminal probe, enabling a forceful FBI raid in January 2026. County officials argue this was a deliberate attempt to bypass legal channels and seize sensitive election materials by force.

The timeline reveals Olsen sent his criminal referral to the FBI on the morning of January 5, 2026 — the same day Fulton County’s clerk of courts filed a motion to dismiss the DOJ’s civil lawsuit seeking the records. The FBI assigned Special Agent Hugh Raymond Evans to the case the very next day and opened a full investigation by January 14. Just 23 days later, the FBI executed its raid.

This compressed timeline helps explain why the FBI’s search warrant affidavit was riddled with discredited voter fraud claims and lacked context on the credibility of witnesses, according to former DOJ officials. Had the affidavit included such context, a federal magistrate judge likely would have denied the warrant.

The FBI pursued Olsen’s referral despite prior debunking of his claims by officials in the Atlanta Division. Paul Brown, the former chief of that field office, was ousted after exposing the falsehoods behind Olsen’s allegations.

The release of this timeline may bolster Fulton County’s ongoing lawsuit accusing the DOJ of using the criminal investigation to circumvent civil litigation. U.S. District Judge Jean-Paul Boulee, who ordered the disclosure, has indicated that evidence of such a tactic would strengthen the county’s case.

Meanwhile, Democracy Forward, a pro-democracy legal group, has filed a lawsuit demanding DOJ officials, including Civil Rights Division head Harmeet Dhillon, disclose communications with Olsen to uncover the full extent of political interference.

This timeline release exposes the troubling depths of politicization within the DOJ and FBI, revealing how election denialism and pro-Trump operatives influenced a federal criminal investigation targeting a key Democratic county. It underscores the urgent need for accountability as the DOJ’s actions continue to threaten democratic processes and the integrity of elections nationwide.