Conspiracy Firm Behind Arizona Audit Defies Order to Release Behind-the-Scenes Texts

Days earlier than the long-delayed conclusion of an Arizona vote “audit” of the 2020 election—one which conspiracy blogs trumpeted because the “MOST TRANSPARENT AUDIT EVER”—the conspiratorial group behind the hassle is combating a court docket order to show over inside paperwork.

Cyber Ninjas, an obscure Florida tech firm with no prior elections expertise, has been main a chaotic overview of Maricopa County, Arizona’s 2020 presidential election since April. The months-long effort has been a fiasco each technically (auditors induced almost $3 million in injury to voting machines and caught COVID en masse) and politically (Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan was revealed to be an election truther who collaborated with Trump attorney Sidney Powell on voter fraud theories). In August, a choose dominated that Cyber Ninjas should flip over audit-related paperwork by mid-September, following a pair of public data lawsuits from the Arizona Republic and the transparency group American Oversight.

However regardless of the choose upholding that ruling last week, Cyber Ninjas has not complied, stating that it would launch some paperwork after its audit report this week—and in some circumstances, perhaps by no means in any respect.

Neither a spokesperson for Cyber Ninjas’ audit effort, nor the group’s legal professional returned requests for touch upon Wednesday concerning whether or not the group would launch court-ordered paperwork.

In a letter to the court docket on Friday, the group’s lawyer, Jack Wilenchik, urged Cyber Ninjas would flip over some paperwork, if it felt prefer it.

“I additionally emphasize that, whereas CNI [Cyber Ninjas, Inc.] intends to provide paperwork out of goodwill and its dedication to transparency, by sending this communication CNI doesn’t concede the existence or scope of any involuntary authorized obligation to take action,” Wilenchik’s letter learn.

Wilenchick objected to the court docket order on two grounds: that Cyber Ninjas shouldn’t be topic to public data legal guidelines, and that Cyber Ninjas is simply too busy to launch court-ordered data (which a choose ordered Cyber Ninjas to protect in August).

A choose has repeatedly dismissed the primary argument, stating that Cyber Ninjas has been employed by Arizona’s Republican-led Senate and is a “custodian” of public data, making it topic to public data legal guidelines.

As for Cyber Ninjas’ alleged time crunch, the group is not any stranger to delays. The group was initially purported to launch its “audit” findings in mid-Might. That deadline was delayed till later within the month, then once more to August, when it was delayed once more as a result of three of the Cyber Ninjas had caught COVID-19. The group now says it would launch its findings on Sept. 24.

Cyber Ninjas may need good cause for withholding inside paperwork, which embody texts and emails in regards to the audit.

From its outset, the group has displayed onerous partisan leanings, with members of the “audit” crew selling voter fraud conspiracy theories and claiming to verify ballots for bamboo fibers, which they claimed would point out {that a} poll had been fraudulently shipped from China. Backers of the audit, like former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne, have appeared to preview the audit’s findings even earlier than the report’s launch, with Byrne stating on Telegram final week that he thought the report would reveal that Donald Trump truly received Maricopa County. (Republican officers in Arizona and Maricopa County have verified President Joe Biden’s victory there.) Logan, in the meantime, has appeared in a voter fraud conspiracy movie, which was primarily based on a ebook Byrne wrote and included interviews filmed at the audit site.

And people had been Cyber Ninjas’ public statements. Behind the scenes, Logan was an much more lively participant in pro-Trump conspiracy theories, selling them on Twitter in late 2020. A brand new report by the Arizona Republic revealed that Logan collaborated on voter fraud theories in late 2020 with Trump lawyer Sidney Powell and former Trump Nationwide Safety Adviser Michael Flynn. Logan helped Powell write subpoenas in a bid to achieve entry to voting machines, the Republic reported.

In his letter, Wilenchick indicated that Cyber Ninjas wouldn’t launch its inside communications, which could yield a number of the clearest insights into the group’s strategy to the controversial overview.

“As with CNI’s inside communications … CNI’s personal data regarding its personal staff should not public data,” he wrote.

Even since Wilenchick’s letter, Cyber Ninjas’ antics have pushed a rift in Maricopa County’s politics. This week, a conspiracy website launched audio of a Maricopa County commissioner chatting with a pro-audit group earlier than the overview started (and subsequently fell aside). Within the recording, the commissioner blasted his colleagues for his or her skepticism in regards to the audit.

The commissioner announced his resignation this week after the recordings went public. In his resignation assertion, he stated he had subsequently grow to be a goal for conspiracy theories.

“The image some people are attempting to color a few cover-up, rip-off and different nonsense about my colleagues and myself is just false,” he wrote. “There was no cover-up, the election was not stolen. Biden received.”