The Washington Post: Trump-allied lawyers sought voting machine data in key battleground states
By Paul LeBlanc, CNN
Lawyers allied with former President Donald Trump directed a data firm to copy information from local election systems in three battleground states, records obtained by The Washington Post show.
The data firm, SullivanStrickler, copied sensitive information from a Dominion voting system in Coffee County, Georgia, and were directed by Trump-connected attorneys to do the same in Michigan and Nevada, the Post reported on Monday.
The effort was revealed through records that were subpoenaed in a long-running lawsuit about election security in Georgia. The multi-state scheme underscores the lengths that allies of the then-President were willing to go to in their campaign to pursue debunked allegations of widespread voter fraud and overturn the results of the 2020 election.
While the data firm’s examinations were allowed by courts in two counties, according to the Post, the efforts were not public and state authorities have open investigations into improper equipment breaches in Michigan and Georgia.
The records obtained by the Post show that Sidney Powell, a well-known Trump-connected attorney, was central to the effort. Following the 2020 election, she became one of the most prominent attorneys fronting lawsuits that supported Trump and made accusations of election fraud, encouraging supporters to funnel money into legal efforts.
Dominion and others have sued Powell or sought to sanction her in federal court.
According to the Post, she was the one who sent SullivanStrickler staff to a rural county in Michigan, and later, the Detroit area. She instructed the data firm to share the information they obtained with other Trump allies involved in the effort to overturn the election.
CNN has reached out to SullivanStrickler and representatives for Powell for comment. Neither offered comment to the Post.
There has been a number of incidents around the country where unauthorized people have attempted to gain access to voting systems that were key targets in the Trump campaign’s efforts to overturn President Joe Biden’s win.
CNN previously reported that in at least one instance in late November 2020, a team of pro-Trump operatives traveled to Antrim County, Michigan, and conducted an audit of voting systems there, according to court documents released as part of a failed lawsuit filed by attorneys working on behalf of the former President at the time.
At the same time, the 2020 election and the false narratives of fraud that emerged from it have shaped a new hybrid threat environment — encompassing potential physical and digital threats and how the public perceives them.
The-CNN-Wire
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