WASHINGTON — A federal judge rejected an effort by the U.S. Justice Department to obtain information on election workers in Fulton County, Georgia, related to the 2020 vote.

U.S. District Judge William Ray II quashed a grand jury subpoena for the names, addresses and phone numbers of people who were involved in administering the 2020 election, calling the demands “staggering” in a 28-page order issued on Tuesday.

Ray, an appointee of President Donald Trump, said in his order that while grand juries work with the Justice Department and U.S. Attorneys to investigate alleged crimes, “that does not give the DOJ the right to use the Grand Jury to do whatever the DOJ wants.”

“Thus, everyone, whether you support the president or you do not, or whether you believe the 2020 election was fair or believe that it was not, should be concerned about the DOJ’s ability to utilize the power of the Grand Jury to appropriate your private information without a legitimate purpose,” Ray wrote.

Ray said the statute of limitations had expired for prosecuting crimes related to the 2020 election in Georgia. Trump lost the state — and the 2020 election — to Democrat Joe Biden and has repeatedly made unsubstantiated claims that the election was rife with fraud.

The ruling represents another rare, stunning loss for the Justice Department when it comes to obtaining and using grand jury subpoenas during the early stages of an investigation. A federal judge in Washington quashed a grand jury subpoena issued to the Federal Reserve in January.

The rejection also marks the first public loss for the U.S. attorney in North Carolina, Dan Bishop, who the Justice Department tapped earlier this year to hunt for election fraud across the country.

The Justice Department didn’t respond to a request for comment.

DOJ had argued the list of employees and workers involved in the 2020 Fulton County election was needed to further investigate potential crimes associated with the election. The department accused Fulton County officials of undermining and obstructing the grand jury’s purpose by opposing the subpoena.

“Without a showing that the subpoenaed information will result in a prosecutable crime, the court finds the DOJ’s need for the subpoenaed information to be questionable, at best,” Ray wrote.

Ray also said turning over the information of election workers, including volunteers, could chill participation in future elections.

“It is not lost on the Court that 2026 is an election year,” Ray wrote. “Fulton County will need many workers and volunteers to effectively run the General Election come November.”

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