stolen from him. The justice department lawsuit asks the state to turn over "all used and void ballots, stubs of all ballots, signature envelopes, and corresponding envelope digital files from the 2020 General Election in Fulton County".  The government accuses the county of violating the Civil Rights Act, after local officials said that the ballots were sealed and could not be produced without a court order. Trump narrowly lost the state of Georgia to Joe Biden in 2020 - one of several losses that cost him the White House.

According to the lawsuit, the justice department sent a subpoena to Fulton County election officials in October demanding the ballot materials, citing a need to investigate "compliance with federal election law".

In a statement on Friday, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said that states must protect against "vote dilution". "At this Department of Justice, we will not permit states to jeopardize the integrity and effectiveness of elections by refusing to abide by our federal elections laws," she said.. "If states will not fulfil their duty to protect the integrity of the ballot, we will." The county did not immediately return requests for comment. After losing the 2020 election to Biden, Trump alleged widespread fraud. Numerous courts rejected the legal challenges brought by his campaigns and allies.

Georgia, particularly Fulton County and the greater Atlanta region, became a focal point of Trump's challenges to the 2020 election results. After the election, Trump called Georgia's Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and told him, "I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state." Raffensperger, whose office oversees Georgia's elections and certifies results, confirmed that Biden won the state even after multiple reviews. His office declined to comment on the justice department's lawsuit. Later, it was in Fulton County that Trump was criminally charged in connection with a scheme to overturn the state's election results. (BBC)