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DOJ subpoenaed personal data of ~3,000 Fulton County 2020 election workers to reinvestigate Trump's stolen-election claims

On April 20, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice served a grand-jury subpoena on Fulton County, Georgia's director of elections demanding the names, positions, residential and email addresses, and personal phone numbers of nearly 3,000 people who worked the 2020 election, from county staff to volunteer and temporary poll workers. The demand was part of a DOJ effort to reinvestigate former President Trump's unfounded claims that the 2020 election was stolen. A federal judge later quashed the subpoena, calling its scope "staggering."

Jurisdiction
Federal
Location
Atlanta, Georgia

Abuses documented

Actors

On April 20, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice served a grand-jury subpoena on the director of elections for Fulton County, Georgia, demanding sweeping personal information about nearly 3,000 people who had worked the county's 2020 election. The subpoena, dated April 17, sought the names, positions, residential and email addresses, and personal cell phone numbers of everyone from full-time county staff to volunteer and temporary poll workers. Federal officials described the demand as part of an effort to reinvestigate long-standing and discredited claims by former President Donald Trump that the 2020 presidential election had been stolen.

Fulton County was the center of Trump's post-2020 efforts to overturn Georgia's results, and its election workers were subjected to threats and harassment after being falsely accused of fraud. Demanding the identifying and contact information of the entire 2020 workforce revived that exposure through the machinery of a federal grand jury, years after any statute of limitations for election-related crimes had expired.

The subpoena was issued out of the office of Dan Bishop, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina, who had been tapped to pursue the 2020 inquiry. Fulton County moved to quash the demand, and the matter proceeded before a federal judge in the Northern District of Georgia.

Updates

2026-07-07 — Federal judge quashed the subpoena as unreasonable [2, 3, 4]

U.S. District Judge William M. Ray II quashed the subpoena, writing that "given the low need for the subpoenaed information and the highly burdensome nature of the disclosure of the same, the Subpoena is unreasonable and must be quashed" and describing its scope as "staggering." He noted that any statute of limitations for possible 2020 election crimes had long expired and that a grand jury does not give the DOJ "the right to use the Grand Jury to do whatever the DOJ wants."

Why we recorded this

Free and fair elections depend on ordinary people being willing to staff the polls without fear of government reprisal. The Justice Department used a grand-jury subpoena to demand the names, home and email addresses, and personal cell numbers of nearly 3,000 people who worked Fulton County's 2020 election, as part of an effort to revisit discredited claims that the election was stolen. Turning federal investigative power against election workers over a settled election threatens to chill participation in running future elections and treats the machinery of justice as a tool for political grievance.

Sources

  1. In major escalation, DOJ demands personal information of 2020 election workers in Georgia — Democracy Docket primary accessed July 7, 2026
  2. Judge rejects DOJ's attempt to get names of 2020 election workers in Fulton County — CBS News secondary accessed July 7, 2026
  3. Judge Quashes Justice Dept. Subpoena in 2020 Election Inquiry — The New York Times secondary accessed July 7, 2026
  4. Judge rejects Justice Department's attempt to get names of 2020 election workers in Fulton County — PBS NewsHour secondary accessed July 7, 2026

See also