The Election Deniers Who Tried to Overturn 2020 May Be Driving Trump’s Fulton Raid

Atlanta – A new ProPublica investigation reveals that Donald Trump’s FBI may have relied on a discredited election conspiracy theorist and long‑debunked claims about Fulton County’s 2020 election for evidence to justify raiding and seizing the county’s 2020 ballots and election records.

The reporting identifies Kevin Moncla, an election denier whose claims about the 2020 election have been repeatedly debunked, as a source of the information provided to the DOJ and potentially used to justify the warrant.

According to ProPublica’s report, Moncla – whose allegations have been reviewed and rejected by Republican election officials in Georgia – has allegedly been interviewed twice by government investigators, and operatives tied to Cleta Mitchell’s Election Integrity Network (EIN) bragged on a December call that DOJ “went to Kevin Moncla for that information” and “relies on a lot of our stuff” in suing Fulton for the same 2020 records the FBI later seized.

Fair Fight CEO Lauren Groh-Wargo released the following statement in response:

“Trump’s raid on Fulton County’s election records appears to be built on lies from the same election deniers whose 2020 claims were investigated, litigated, and proven false – now recycled to interfere with the 2026 elections. Georgia’s Republican election officials have already rejected Moncla’s Fulton complaints, yet Trump’s DOJ appears to be relying on him for information to justify an unprecedented federal raid on a local election office.

“This is what happens when the same network that tried to overturn 2020 is handed federal power to invent crises, cook up fake ‘evidence,’ and send in the FBI – their next step is to demand drastic changes to elections and remove voters from the rolls. Trump has called on Republicans to ‘take over the voting’ and ‘nationalize’ elections, which is absolutely illegal, and Fulton County – where his FBI seized 2020 ballots – is where they are attempting to advance this first.”

Background and Key Facts: Following the FBI’s January 28 raid of a Fulton County elections facility, anti‑voting groups and election deniers celebrated the seizure of ballots and election records. Operatives tied to the Election Integrity Network framed the raid as validation of conspiracy theories that have been disproven time and again.

Fulton County’s 2020 election results were confirmed through multiple audits, recounts, and investigations – including a full hand recount – all upheld President Joe Biden’s victory. Despite this, Trump‑aligned groups continue targeting Fulton County as part of a broader effort to undermine confidence in elections and lay the groundwork for future interference.

The FBI’s raid represents a serious escalation, introducing federal criminal enforcement tools into an effort rooted in conspiracy theories rather than credible evidence. ProPublica’s reporting identifies Kevin Moncla, an election denier whose claims about the 2020 election have been repeatedly debunked, as a potential source of the information provided to the DOJ and used to justify the warrant. Additional facts for context:

• Georgia’s Republican secretary of state and State Election Board have investigated Moncla’s Fulton complaints and either dismissed them outright or found only minor human errors that did not change the 2020 results.
• On a December call obtained by ProPublica, activists tied to the Election Integrity Network bragged that the DOJ “went to Kevin Moncla for that information” and “relies on a lot of our stuff” in suing Fulton for the same 2020 records later seized in the raid.
• Fulton County commissioners are suing to unseal the FBI affidavit, arguing that “debunked theories” were used to support the warrant. The Trump-appointed judge in that case has ordered the DOJ to unseal the affidavit by close of business Tuesday.
• Legal experts warn that if probable cause rests on discredited claims, the legal foundation for the raid is extremely weak.
• Election deniers are already treating Fulton as a model, not an exception. Right‑wing commentator John Solomon has suggested the FBI could carry out a similar ballot seizure in Arizona, signaling that Trump’s allies see this raid as a template to replicate in other swing states.
• In defamation litigation involving far‑right outlet The Gateway Pundit, internal messages from a lawyer for the site described Moncla as “a goddamned fraud” and “a known fabricator,” underscoring how unreliable he is even in the eyes of his own allies. Those proceedings stemmed from Gateway Pundit’s false accusations against two Fulton County election workers – part of the same web of discredited 2020 conspiracy theories that have already led to massive defamation damages against Rudy Giuliani.

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