By Kate Brumback | Related Press
ATLANTA — Two months after the 2020 presidential election, a staff of pc consultants traveled to south Georgia to repeat software program and information from voting gear in an obvious breach of a county election system. They had been greeted exterior by the top of the native Republican Get together, who was concerned in efforts by then-President Donald Trump to overturn his election loss.
A safety digicam exterior the elections workplace in rural Espresso County captured their arrival. The footage additionally reveals that some native election officers had been on the workplace throughout what the Georgia secretary of state’s workplace has described as “alleged unauthorized entry” of election gear.
Safety footage from two weeks later raises further alarms — displaying two individuals who had been instrumental in Trump’s wider efforts to undermine the election outcomes coming into the workplace and staying for hours.
The safety video from the elections workplace within the county about 200 miles southeast of Atlanta provides a glimpse of the lengths Trump’s allies went in service of his fraudulent election claims. It additional reveals how entry allegedly was facilitated by native officers entrusted with defending the safety of elections whereas elevating considerations about delicate voting expertise being launched into the general public area.
Georgia wasn’t the one state the place voting gear was accessed after the 2020 presidential election. Essential details about voting techniques additionally was compromised in election workplaces in Pennsylvania,Michigan and Colorado. Election safety consultants fear the knowledge obtained — together with full copies of onerous drives — might be exploited by those that need to intrude with future elections.
“The system is simply as safe because the people who find themselves entrusted to maintain it safe,” stated lawyer David Cross, who represents plaintiffs in a long-running lawsuit over Georgia’s voting machines.
The Espresso County safety footage was obtained via that lawsuit, which alleges that Georgia’s touchscreen voting machines are weak to assault and needs to be changed by hand-marked paper ballots. The go well with lengthy predates and is unrelated to false allegations of widespread election fraud pushed by Trump and his allies after the 2020 election.
The alleged breach in Espresso County’s elections workplace additionally has caught the eye of Fulton County District Lawyer Fani Willis, who's overseeing an investigation into whether or not Trump and his allies illegally tried to affect the 2020 election leads to Georgia.
Final month, Willis cited the Espresso County exercise, amongst different issues, when she sought to compel testimony from Sidney Powell, an lawyer who was deeply concerned in Trump’s effort to undo the election outcomes.
Emails and different data present Powell and different attorneys linked to Trump helped organize for a staff from information options firm SullivanStrickler to journey to Espresso County, which Trump gained by almost 40 share factors.
The surveillance video, emails and different paperwork that make clear what occurred there in January 2021 had been produced in response to subpoenas issued within the voting machine lawsuit and had been obtained by The Related Press. Elements of the safety video seem to contradict claims by among the native officers:
— Footage captures Cathy Latham, then chair of the Espresso County Republican Get together, arriving on the elections workplace shortly after 11:30 a.m. on Jan. 7, 2021, the day after the violent assault on the U.S. Capitol. Only a few weeks earlier, she was certainly one of 16 Georgia Republicans who signed a certificates falsely stating that Trump had gained the state and declaring that they had been the state’s “duly elected and certified” electors.
A couple of minutes after her arrival, she is seen exterior greeting SullivanStrickler Chief Working Officer Paul Maggio and two different folks. Lower than 10 minutes later, she escorts two different males into the constructing.
The video reveals her leaving the elections workplace simply earlier than 1:30 p.m., roughly two hours after she greeted the SullivanStrickler staff. She returns somewhat earlier than 4 p.m. after which leaves round 6:15 p.m.
Latham stated underneath oath throughout a deposition in August that she stopped by the elections workplace that night for “Only a few minutes” and left earlier than 5 p.m. Pressed on whether or not she had been there earlier within the day, Latham stated she couldn’t recall however advised her schedule as a instructor wouldn't have allowed it.
A lawyer for SullivanStrickler stated in an e mail hooked up to a courtroom submitting that Latham was a “major level of contact” in coordinating the corporate’s work and “was on web site” whereas that work was accomplished.
Robert Cheeley, a lawyer for Latham stated in an emailed assertion that his shopper doesn’t keep in mind all the main points of that day. However he stated she “wouldn't and has not knowingly been concerned in any impropriety in any election” and “has not acted improperly or illegally.”
— The video additionally reveals Eric Chaney, a member of Espresso County’s election board, arriving shortly earlier than 11 a.m. the identical day and going out and in a number of occasions earlier than leaving for the night time round 7:40 p.m. Legal professionals for the plaintiffs within the voting machine lawsuit wrote in a courtroom submitting that a picture produced by SullivanStrickler’s COO reveals Chaney within the workplace because the copying is occurring.
Throughout a deposition final month, Chaney declined to reply many questions on that day, citing the Fifth Modification. However when an lawyer representing the county reached out to him in April relating to questions from the The Washington Submit, Chaney wrote, “I'm not conscious of nor was I current on the Espresso County Board of Elections and Registration’s workplace when anybody illegally accessed the server or the room through which it's contained.” Chaney resigned from the elections board final month, days earlier than his deposition.
Makes an attempt to achieve Chaney by telephone had been unsuccessful, and his lawyer didn't reply to an e mail in search of remark.
— About two weeks after the preliminary breach, video reveals Misty Hampton — then the county elections director — arriving on the elections workplace at 4:20 p.m. on Jan. 18, when it was closed for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. She unlocked the door and let in two males — Doug Logan and Jeff Lenberg, who've been energetic in efforts to problem the 2020 election outcomes.
Logan based Cyber Ninjas, which participated in a partisan and finally discredited evaluate of the 2020 election in Maricopa County, Arizona. The 2 males remained inside till simply after 8 p.m. after which spent greater than 9 hours there the subsequent day. Lenberg returned for temporary visits on at the very least three extra days later that month.
Hampton resigned as elections supervisor in February 2021 after elections board officers stated she falsified her timesheets. Makes an attempt by the AP to achieve her had been unsuccessful.
In an announcement launched by its lawyer, SullivanStrickler stated the corporate was retained by attorneys to forensically copy voting machines used within the 2020 election and had no motive to consider they might ask its staff to do something improper.
The Georgia secretary of state’s workplace stated it opened an investigation in March and requested the Georgia Bureau of Investigation for help final month. State officers have stated the system stays safe due to a number of protections in place.