The ruling is the latest in a saga driven by President Trump’s desire for redemption in the state, which he lost in 2020. The county is likely to appeal.
A federal judge in Georgia ruled Wednesday that the federal government did not have to return 2020 election records seized by the F.B.I., rejecting a request from Fulton County that the materials be returned.
After F.B.I. agents carried out an extraordinary seizure of about 660 boxes of records from Fulton County’s elections hub, county officials responded in early February by filing a lawsuit demanding the return of the documents and describing the search as unconstitutional.
But Judge J.P. Boulee of the Federal District Court in Atlanta wrote in his order that while he found elements of the case “troubling,” the county had not met the bar required for him to compel the government to return the records.
“This Court acknowledges that the events leading up to this case are, in a variety of ways, unprecedented,” Judge Boulee, who was appointed to the federal bench during President Trump’s first term, wrote in his 68-page order. But he said that the county had not shown that the federal government had displayed “callous disregard” for the constitutional rights of the county.
In the lawsuit, lawyers for Fulton County argued that the federal government’s action violated Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures.
Judge Boulee’s decision was the latest episode in a saga animated by Mr. Trump’s push for redemption after his 2020 election loss in Georgia, where he lost to Joseph R. Biden Jr. by fewer than 12,000 votes. Georgia was one of a handful of swing states that Mr. Biden narrowly won on his way to the White House.