Criminal Justice

A Trump-Appointed Judge Quashes a Subpoena Aimed at Validating the President's Stolen-Election Fantasy

The decision rebukes the DOJ for demanding "private and sensitive" information about Georgia election workers "with no legitimate law enforcement purpose."

Jacob Sullum | 7.8.2026 3:25 PM

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(Sen. Josh McLaurin)

On Tuesday, a federal judge in Georgia quashed a grand jury subpoena aimed at validating President Donald Trump's counterfactual claim that massive fraud deprived him of his rightful victory in the 2020 election. U.S. District Judge William M. Ray II, a Trump appointee, noted that the breadth of the subpoena, which sought "private and sensitive" information about thousands of Fulton County employees and volunteers who were involved in collecting, processing, counting, or recounting ballots that year, was "staggering." That demand, he ruled, could not be justified by "any valid prosecutorial need," since the statutory deadline for criminal charges related to the 2020 election came and went at least six months ago.

Ray's decision is striking for several reasons. First, it was necessary only because Trump remains fully invested in a stolen-election fantasy that the courts rejected nearly six years ago. Second, although the Department of Justice (DOJ) seems eager to pursue the president's personal vendettas, it frequently falls down on the job, as illustrated by its disregard for the statute of limitations in this case. Third, federal judges almost never quash grand jury subpoenas, so this rebuke by a Trump nominee speaks volumes about the incompetence of the president's hatchet men.

"The Court agrees with Fulton County that, in pursuing the Subpoena, the DOJ is engaged in an 'arbitrary fishing expedition,' such that the Subpoena is unreasonable and must be quashed," Ray writes. "The statute of limitations for any possible crime arising from the 2020 Election has long expired." Although grand juries work with federal prosecutors to "investigate alleged criminal actions," he says, "that does not give the DOJ the right to use the Grand Jury to do whatever the DOJ wants."

The subpoena, which Fulton County received on April 20, demanded the names, positions, residential and email addresses, and personal phone numbers of people who directly or tangentially helped Fulton County with the 2020 election. The list included individuals "assigned to review Mail-In Ballots," "assigned to the Voter Review Panel/Board," "assigned to Mobile Voting Locations," or "assigned to transfer results to or........

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