The special agent in charge of the FBI’s Minneapolis field office was removed from his position in January after raising concerns about the Department of Justice’s renewed focus on aspects of the 2020 election in Georgia, multiple news outlets reported this week.
The removal comes after a reporter from MS NOW claimed that the “Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office is in open revolt against Main Justice dictates,” adding that the agent in charge of the Minneapolis-based office has also been removed.
Paul W. Brown, who led the FBI’s Atlanta office, reportedly questioned the legal justification for expanded investigative activity related to the 2020 election, including efforts to execute search and seizure actions in Fulton County. Brown’s objections reportedly centered on the evidence supporting claims of voter fraud and the bureau’s involvement in the inquiry.
Following Brown’s removal, FBI agents executed a court-authorized search warrant at the Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center in Union City, seizing hundreds of boxes of records tied to the 2020 presidential election.
The Justice Department has not publicly commented on Brown’s reassignment. Fulton County leaders have criticized the federal action as politically motivated and said it exceeds the scope of permissible federal oversight of elections.
Brown’s removal comes after officials in Fulton County, Georgia – which includes Atlanta – acknowledged in December that approximately 315,000 ballots cast in the 2020 presidential election were verified without the proper signatures from poll workers on tabulator tapes, according to a county attorney said at a recent election board meeting.
The Minnesota U.S. Attorney's Office is in open revolt against Main Justice dictates. Now the FBI Acting SAC is gone. I can't stress enough how unusual this is. Agents & prosecutors are refusing to play along with the corruption of the Justice Department. https://t.co/Tjqt2MtdID
— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) January 31, 2026
BREAKING on @MSNOWNews – The acting chief of FBI field office for Minneapolis has been removed from his job by headquarters, two sources tell me. This comes on heels of his office's disputes with @FBI HQ over ICE protests & ouster of Atlanta chief. https://t.co/6NALjGSOcl
— Carol Leonnig (@CarolLeonnig) January 30, 2026
Tabulator tapes — the printed records from ballot-scanning machines that help verify that the number of votes counted matches the number of ballots cast — are required under Georgia election regulations to be signed by poll workers.
Fulton County officials admitted that the signatures were not applied on those tapes for early voting in the 2020 election.
The admission was made by Ann Brumbaugh, the county attorney, during a Dec. 9, 2025 meeting of the Georgia State Elections Board. In addition to the missing signatures, officials acknowledged misplacement of other tabulator tapes and related documents.
“We do not dispute that the tapes were not signed. It was a violation of the rule,” Brumbaugh said per WANF. “They should have done it.”
Local election officials said the procedural lapse was a violation of state regulations but have not specified whether the absence of signatures affected the accuracy of the vote count.
State and local election authorities previously conducted audits and recounts of the 2020 election results, and Georgia’s statewide outcome was certified after those processes.
“At best, this is sloppy and lazy,” Janelle King, a Republican member of the State Elections Board, said, per the outlet. “At worst, it could be egregious, and it could have affected an election.”
President Trump has long maintained that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him. He was charged with election law violations by Fulton County DA Fani Willis in late 2023 after he declared his intent to run for president the following year, but those charges have since been dismissed and Willis herself is facing potential discipline over her mishandling of the case.
The voting tabulation disclosure comes amid renewed national attention on election administration practices, particularly in Fulton County, which has been the subject of investigations and federal actions related to records from the 2020 election.
In a setback for the county, last week, Fulton County Judge Robert McBurney ruled in favor of the State Election Board, ordering the county to immediately turn over documents, including scanned ballot images from the 2020 election. The county had been battling the release of these documents for over a year.
County officials announced Monday that they will file a federal lawsuit challenging last week’s FBI raid on the county’s elections hub and operations center, saying the search warrant was improperly executed and took original election materials without proper safeguards.
Fulton County Commissioner Marvin Arrington Jr. said county attorneys will file the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, arguing that the warrant and subsequent seizure exceeded what was legally permitted.
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