DOJ subpoenas names and info on Fulton County election workers

May 5 (UPI) -- The Department of Justice is demanding the names of every worker and volunteer who worked the 2020 election in Fulton County, Ga., via a federal grand jury subpoena.

It's the latest move by the federal government and the President Donald Trump administration to pursue his false claims that he won the 2020 election.

Fulton County Chair Rob Pitts said "the federal government once again is attempting to misuse criminal process."

"This is yet another act of outrageous federal overreach designed to intimidate and to chill participation in elections," Pitts said in a statement. "This harassment should not be allowed, so we have asked the Court to act. I will always stand up for our elections workers and for the truth."

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"Let me be crystal clear. Fulton County will not be intimidated," Pitts added.

In a Monday filing to quash the subpoena, lawyers for the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections said, the subpoena arises "out of the U.S. Department of Justice's latest effort to target and harass the President's perceived political enemies - this time election officials, poll workers, and volunteers in Fulton County whom Donald Trump continues to disparage as he perpetuates his false claim that they 'stole' the 2020 election."

The motion listed several reasons to quash the subpoena.

"Its purpose is to target, harass and punish the President's perceived political opponents; it is grossly overbroad and untethered to any reasonable need; it cannot yield any evidence that could result in a criminal prosecution (because, among other things, the statutes of limitations have expired for any purported 2020 election crimes); it burdens the First Amendment rights of election workers and will chill their participation in elections and it unreasonably interferes with Georgia's sovereign authority to administer elections," the motion said.

In late January, the FBI served a search warrant on the Fulton County elections office, taking boxes of ballots under the watch of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. Gabbard said she was there at the direction of President Donald Trump.

Since then, Fulton County and civil rights organizations have filed suit to get the election materials back. Fulton County argued that the Department of Justice lied to get the search warrant.

Lauren Groh-Wargo, leader of Fair Fight Action, a voting rights organization, said threats and harassment against election workers nationwide are increasing, The New York Times reported.

"Roughly a third of election officials are threatened on the job, and more than half worry it's making it harder to hire and keep election workers," Groh-Wargo said in a statement on Monday. "They're trying to break our democracy by attacking the infrastructure, but we are fighting back hard."

Fulton County, which includes most of Atlanta, was the center of the fight after Trump lost the election and asked the Georgia Secretary of State to "find" enough votes for him. Fulton County Attorney Fani Willis filed charges against Trump and several of his friends for election interference. A few of them pleaded guilty, but the case against Trump was eventually dropped because Willis allegedly had an affair with the prosecutor.