FBI Field Offices Ordered to Put Staff on 2020 Vote

Federal agents are flooding into one of the most scrutinized battlegrounds of the 2020 election. CNN reports the FBI has labeled its Georgia election probe a priority in an internal memo. It instructs field offices around the country to assign analysts to the effort, while calling for a total of 260 additional intelligence personnel. Large field offices are to put eight analysts each on the case, per CBS News, while small and medium offices are told to assign three to five analysts. The memo says each staffer is to review 708 records, per the AP, by July 17.

President Trump and his allies have made false claims that widespread election fraud cost him the 2020 election; Georgia's votes in the 2020 presidential race were counted three times, including once by hand, and each count affirmed Democrat Joe Biden's victory. The case was referred to the FBI in January by Kurt Olsen, a lawyer who promoted false claims of 2020 fraud and was tapped by Trump's White House to pursue them. Later that month, agents executed a warrant at the Fulton County elections office, taking possession of some 700 boxes of election records. The Justice Department previously has said it is investigating "irregularities that occurred during the 2020 presidential election in the County," per the AP.