An Atlanta FBI chief was forced out after balking at efforts to resurrect President Donald Trump’s debunked claims about the 2020 election being rigged in Georgia, according to new reporting from MS NOW.
Paul Brown, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Atlanta field office, was removed earlier this month after raising concerns about a renewed push from the Justice Department to investigate Fulton County, and refusing to carry out searches and seizures tied to the probe.
Brown’s ouster seems to have cleared the path for a dramatic escalation in the investigation.
Last week, FBI agents executed a search warrant at the Fulton County Elections Hub and Operation Center, hauling away roughly 700 boxes of records tied to an election that has already been audited, recounted, and upheld by the courts.
Trump has repeatedly amplified the baseless claim that the election was “stolen” from him in Georgia, frequently singling out the heavily Democratic county.
What made the raid especially striking was who showed up: Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
It is highly unusual for the nation’s top intelligence official to be present at a domestic FBI operation, according to Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee.
“What the heck is she doing [with] the FBI serving a domestic warrant?” Warner asked reporters on Capitol Hill.
“If this doesn’t concern the hell out of every American, it sure as hell should.”
A spokesperson for Gabbard defended her involvement, arguing it fell within her mandate to protect election security.
In a statement to the Daily Beast, ODNI press secretary Olivia Coleman said Gabbard was acting under Trump’s directive to secure elections and cited longstanding concerns about vulnerabilities in electronic voting systems.
“President Trump’s directive to secure our elections was clear, and DNI Gabbard has and will continue to take actions within her authorities, alongside our interagency partners,” Coleman said.
The investigation’s legal footing has also drawn scrutiny after the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that the search warrant was obtained by a U.S. attorney from Missouri rather than a Georgia prosecutor.
Sources told MS NOW that Brown objected to both the scope of the investigation and what he viewed as its political motivation.
Sen. Ossoff: “Much of the American public are quite reasonably alarmed and asking questions after the Director of National Intelligence was spotted bizarrely and personally lurking in an FBI evidence truck in Fulton County, Georgia yesterday.” pic.twitter.com/9qoDl6ckZo
— Ossoff’s Office (@SenOssoff) January 29, 2026
Brown had been appointed to lead the Atlanta office in February last year and oversaw all FBI investigations and personnel across Georgia, but was removed from the position shortly before the raid, according to the Associated Press.
The episode has sharpened scrutiny of Kash Patel, the Trump loyalist now running the bureau as it reopens old battles over the 2020 election.
While Patel has not been publicly named in connection with the Fulton County warrant, critics say the Georgia raid reflects an approach he has long championed—sidelining internal resistance and aggressively pursuing investigations aligned with Trump’s political grievances.
Local officials were unsparing. Fulton County Chairman Robb Pitts called the investigation an act of intimidation at a news conference on Thursday.
“Any honest review of these files will show what every previous review has shown,” Pitts said. “Fulton County elections are fair and lawful.”
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche reiterated that election integrity is “important to this administration” at a news conference on Friday, but declined to explain why federal authorities are now targeting records from an election held more than four years ago.
The timing has raised further questions, given the statute of limitations for many federal election-related crimes is typically around five years. But the implications extend beyond relitigating 2020.
Changes to Georgia election law, passed after Trump’s loss, now allow the Republican-led state election board the power to suspend and replace county election officials following audits or investigations—power that could determine who controls elections heading into the 2026 midterms and 2028 presidential election.
The FBI declined to comment, saying it does not discuss personnel matters.
The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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