Pullen Randy

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WHAT CONNECTION TO FLYNN CONF? CLETA WAS THERE

At Summit, Election Deniers Press for Trump to Take Over Midterms — ProPublica

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LAUNDER TRUMP SAVE AM PAC $ TO CYBERNINJA FRAUDIT BS

meadows sinecure save am pac 1mill$?

note TYPOS AND GUESSES?

i think this is typo

an 1 23 maya GUK

Former President Donald Trump made a “secret” $1 million donation to the election audit conducted in Arizona following his false claims that the election was stolen from him, the Guardian reports.

The audit was requested by Arizona GOP senators, and doubted by many of their colleagues due to the “wild conspiracy theories” it mirrored. An assertion “that bamboo fibers found in ballot sheets proved they had been printed in Asia” even caused some local GOP members to deem the probe a “grift disguised as an audit.”

But nevertheless, the audit persisted.

Although eventually proven baseless and unsuccessful, The Guardian reports that “one of the largest benefactors” behind this attempt to counter the 2020 election results remained a secret for nearly two years.

But watchdog group “Documented” was able to track funding for the failed assessment and eventually landed on Trump’s super PAC, Save America.

First, the group discovered that Cyber Ninjas, the Florida company that conducted the audit, was provided $5.7 million by far-right groups, and then given an additional $1 million from former Trump advisor and attorney Cleta Mitchell.

Still, questions around the origin of the $1 million remained unanswered.

TheNew York Timesreports that in September of 2021, “unnamed ‘officials,’” as well as Arizona GOP senators who requested the election audit, adamantly denied Trump’s contribution.

However, with its research on many corporate, tax and campaign finance filings, as well as emails and text messages between Trump allies that were obtained by nonpartisan accountability group American Oversight, "Documented" managed to counter those claims.

The Guardian broke down the process of how the watchdog group traced the donation back to Trump.

Like many incidents surrounding Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020, tracing back Trump’s contribution to the audit starts with the Jan. 6 committee.

The committee’s final report mentioned that Trump super PAC, Save America, donated $1 million to the Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI) — led by former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows — but did not disclose the origin or the reason for the money.

Further research revealed that Trump’s contribution possibly began around June 2021, as accountability group American Oversighttracked text messages between retired Army officer and “arch election denier” Phil Waldron and Doug Logan, CEO of Cyber Ninjas, the Florida-based company that conducted the audit.

Waldron texted Logan, “Kurt is going to talk to 45 today, about $.”

According to the Guardian, “Kurt” likely referred toKurt Olden, an “election denying lawyer.” He continued, “Mike L talking to Corey L,” referring to CEO of MyPillow and devoted Trump supporter Mike Lindelland Trump campaign manager Corey Lewondowski.

A couple of weeks later, Waldron asked Logan if he had received a $1 million payment from Lewondowski. He texted, “Supposedly Kurt talked to Trump and they got 1 mil for you,” but he noted he “couldn’t verify who sent and received.”

According to The Guardian, the Federal Election Commission reported that less than two weeks later, on July 26, 2021, Save America transferred the $1 million to CPI. Two days later, a new group, American Voting Rights Foundation (AVRF) “registered as a corporation in Delaware.”

CPI donated $1 million to AVRF — the group’s first and only donation — in 2021, and although the date of donation is unknown, the clear relationship between the groups, the “timing and amounts” of the transfers, as well as the revealed text messages between Trump allies all leads to one culprit: Trump.

Furthermore, on the day AVRF registered as a corporation, Trump attorney Mitchell emailed Cyber Ninjas CEo Loganand put him in touch with the audit spokesperson, Randy Pullen as well as AVRF treasurer Tom Datwyler.

The Arizona Republic recently confirmed that Trump was notified of the process the whole time

GOP vice-chair of Maricopa County board of supervisors Bill Gates told The Guardian he is “disappointed, but not surprised” by the revelation.

“At the very least, it is highly hypocritical for the Arizona state senate to have allowed the audit to be funded in this fashion,” Gates said.

Ultimately, even after the great lengths Trump and his cohort of election deniers went to assist in the audit, the goal to overturn Arizona's election was never met. The Guardian reports that in 2020, President Joe Biden won Maricopa County, the most populated in Arizona and where the audit took place, by 45,109 votes.

Regarding the morality of the audit, Gates added that Arizona law states, “electoral candidates are not allowed to fund vote recounts which have to be financed with taxpayer dollars.” And although the audit was “technically not a recount,” it’s clear the intent was the same.

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ref 2

cyber Ninjas' ties to Trump during Arizona election 'audit' revealed in messages

Ryan Randazzo Robert Anglen

Arizona Republic

and

Jan. 26, 2023

Former President Donald Trump publicly kept his distance from the review of Maricopa County's 2020 election. But inside Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix, his influence loomed over critical aspects of the "audit," according to messages sent and received by the man leading the ballot recount.

New records show Trump received direct updates from people at the coliseum, his allies pressured the lead contractor on when to report findings, and that contractor asked people close to the former president if he could help pay for it. This all happened as leaders of the state Senate publicly denied Trump had any involvement in their effort.

While messages from those working on the audit indicate they intentionally kept the president at arm's length to avoid the appearance of his influence, behind the scenes they sought Trump's approval — and money.

In April 2021, four days before the election review began, Cyber Ninjas founder Doug Logan used a private messaging system to discuss taking a donation from Trump and his team surreptitiously.

"I told them there was no way I could take funds directly," he said in the chat.

Once the audit concluded and the now-defunct Cyber Ninjas was millions of dollars in debt, Logan would lament that Trump never did directly fund his work.

"It's my understanding that our underfunded status is known all the way up to 45," Logan wrote to a subcontractor in a conversation about how to pay everyone. "Never talked with him, but I've been told the message has been received."

Presenters of the report on the election audit, from left, Ben Cotton, the founder of CyFIR, Doug Logan, the CEO of Cyber Ninjas and Randy Pullen, the audit spokesman, look on before the start of the presentation to the Arizona lawmakers in the Senate chambers of the Arizona Capitol in Phoenix on Sept. 24, 2021. David Wallace/The Republic

Logan has released tens of thousands of personal messages he sent to supporters and subcontractors involved in the audit in response to ongoing lawsuits from The Arizona Republic and a left-leaning watchdog group based in Washington, D.C., called American Oversight.

The messages reveal for the first time how Logan worked with Trump allies to help finance the work, shape media coverage and manage day-to-day operations as teams worked to hand count 2.1 million ballots cast by county voters.

Logan for months fought the release of his personal messages, which The Republic first sought through state Public Records Law. But after a $50,000-a-day sanction for noncompliance and exhausting all appeals, Logan’s lawyer has turned over many — but not all — text and Signal messages Logan sent and received while working on the audit.

Logan on Tuesday declined to comment on the pleas for money he made through extensive communication with Christina Bobb, a former Trump lawyer and conservative broadcaster who served as a go-between for the former president.

Arizona Senate Republicans hired Cyber Ninjas to recount and inspect ballots, and the so-called "audit" confirmed President Joe Biden’s win in the state and made no concrete findings of wrongdoing by election officials. But for months it served as a marketing tool for politicians who campaigned on unproven accusations that the election was compromised.

[

200 PhotosVIEW FULL GALLERY

Arizona Senate audits Maricopa County election resultsBallots from the 2020 presidential election were sent to the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix in April 2021.](https://archive.ph/o/XXodN/https://www.azcentral.com/picture-gallery/news/politics/elections/2021/04/22/tabulation-machines-shipped-senate-election-audit/7312790002/)

Senate Republicans said from the outset that Trump did not push for the audit and did not provide any assistance for it, financial or otherwise.

Former Senate President Karen Fann, a Prescott Republican who hired Cyber Ninjas, repeatedly said the effort was not done to put Trump back in the White House.

"This absolutely has nothing to do with Trump," Fann wrote in an email to a constituent days after the audit began in 2021. "The election cannot be overturned. This audit is ONLY about election integrity, answering their questions, and hopefully proving there was nothing wrong with the election."

She reacted with surprise Jan. 19 to the newly released messages when contacted about them by a reporter. When the audit began, she said, she did not know the extent to which Trump allies were involved.

"I did not know," she said. "Since then I have now connected the dots. ... Obviously, in the subsequent months, it was very apparent."

Trump was watching, chatting with broadcaster

Several references in Logan’s messages indicate people in Trump’s circle were closely watching Maricopa County and reporting back to the former president, who they sometimes referred to as “45.” Trump was the nation's 45th president.

Logan in the messages discussed Trump’s interest in the work with Bobb, who was given broad access to the election review while working as a personality for the right-wing OAN Network.

Former One America News Network anchor Christina Bobb speaks at a Blake Masters election integrity event on April 30, 2022, in Chandler. Megan Mendoza/The Republic

Bobb worked in the Trump administration as an appointee in the Department of Homeland Security. She left in early 2020 to join OAN. But after Trump lost the 2020 election, Bobb volunteered to help his legal team challenge the results and was with his team until the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, according to her testimony to the congressional committee that investigated the attack.

Shortly after Trump's loss, she helped coordinate a meeting in Arizona at which Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani suggested the election was compromised.

Bobb continued to work as a personality for OAN and began covering the Arizona audit, where she messaged frequently with Logan. She also helped raise money for the audit through her connections to Trump and his organization.

Other media were restricted to a small press box in Veterans Memorial Coliseum — when they could get into the building at all.

Bobb at one point told Logan she would ask the Trump organization for recommendations for a lawyer to help with the audit because Logan didn't like the lawyer recommended to him at the time.

On June 19, 2021, Logan asked Bobb if Trump would pressure Arizona GOP Chair Kelli Ward to donate some of the money she was raising off the audit to the actual work, which he said she had not done. Bobb said Trump liked Ward because she was an "outspoken media personality" and was unlikely to push her to fund the audit.

In this series of messages, Doug Logan talks about audit funding with Christina Bobb. Logan, founder of Cyber Ninjas, turned over tens of thousands of personal messages in response to lawsuits. Text Messages Provided To Arizona Senate By Doug Logan

Logan followed up, asking if Trump could press people to donate to the nonprofits set up to fund the audit.

"I will ask him. He shies away from publicly supporting the audit. I will raise the money issue with him next time we talk," Bobb responded.

Then on June 25, Bobb discussed funding with Logan, telling him that a wire would come from “Sidney" from Defending the Republic. Trump lawyer Sidney Powell raised money after his loss through a nonprofit by that name.

“I reached out to her and she didn’t take my call. I’ll try again. If she doesn’t answer, I’ll have Trump call,” Bobb wrote to Logan.

Months later, Logan would report that Powell's group donated $550,000 to his work.

Bobb said in a recent interview with The Republic that she didn’t officially join the Trump team until April 2022. But she did communicate with Trump about the audit.

“I knew that he was very interested in the audit,” she said. “I was never officially communicating anything on behalf of anybody.”

Often, Trump just wanted more detail than what she had shared in her news stories, Bobb said.

She said she never received funding for the audit from Trump or any organization affiliated with him.

“He was not involved in funding. I did ask. It was a no,” she said.

Messages sought updates on counting, funding

In May 2021, as the work passed the one-month mark, Logan messaged with a man named Patrick Weaver who worked on the audit. Weaver was affiliated with The America Project, one of the groups that funded Logan’s work beyond the $150,000 paid by the state.

“Any total count numbers you can give me for Abby to give to Trump?” Weaver wrote to Logan on May 25, 2021. The identity of "Abby" is unclear.

In this message, Patrick Weaver asks Doug Logan for an audit update to provide Donald Trump. Logan, founder of Cyber Ninjas, turned over tens of thousands of personal messages in response to lawsuits. Text Messages Provided To Arizona Senate By Doug Logan

Logan responded with an update on the counting.

In July, Logan messaged with Phil Waldron, a retired Army colonel who worked with President Trump’s chief of staff after his 2020 defeat to concoct ways Trump might stay in office.Waldron said Trump had planned to send $1 million to the audit, but Logan said he had not received it.“Payment – 1 mil – supposedly Kurt talked to trump and they got 1 mil for you,” Waldron wrote to Logan. The identity of "Kurt" is unclear.

How we got here:An Arizona election audit timeline

Fann unaware of some connections to Trump

Fann acknowledged that Bobb and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani "called several times" before the audit began as part of an effort to call the election into question. But said she did not "know anything else that was going on in the background" of the ballot count.

Arizona needed the audit to assure voters there was no chicanery in the numbers, Fann said.

"My job was to make sure we had an honest election in Arizona," she said.

She confirmed Trump called her "a couple of times" to discuss the audit as it unfolded. She said she didn't recall him trying to exert influence over the process, but rather he asked about it.

"He told me, 'Thank you for doing this,'" she said.

Even as Bobb reported on and raised funds for the election review — and her network was selected to livestream camera footage from the coliseum — Fann said she believed Bobb was acting only in her capacity as a news host, not a Trump surrogate.

Senate President Karen Fann takes notes with a pen during a meeting about the audit the Arizona State Senate in Phoenix on July 15, 2021. Joseph Cooke/The Republic

'Is God really going to come through?'

Logan's lawyer has redacted several messages between him and Bobb sent during this time, despite clear orders from Arizona courts to turn over everything. Still, some of the unredacted messages show Bobb held out her connection to Trump as a way to influence Logan, who was desperate for money.

"Is God really going to come through in funding this thing?" Logan wrote to Bobb on June 26, 2021.

She replied: "I don't know what he's going to do, but I know in the end we win. I don't know how we get there. But yes, in the end it will all workout."

Logan told her that day he needed about $4.8 million more to complete the audit.

"I'll raise with 45 again next time we talk," Bobb replied.

The next day, Bobb messaged Logan asking if the Senate would issue a news release with his preliminary findings. Contractors had finished counting and inspecting ballots at the coliseum a few days before. It would be months before Logan made a final report.

"I'm getting a lot of concerned people calling me saying the audit will lose credibility if there isn't some type of announcement tomorrow," she wrote.

In this text message, Christina Bobb asks Doug Logan about a potential announcement about the audit. Text Messages Provided To Arizona Senate By Doug Logan

Logan didn't want to issue preliminary findings. He pushed back.

"That wouldn't be the case if there wasn't so much fake news that a number was expected tomorrow," he told the reporter.

Bobb lashed out.

"I strongly suggest you don't blame me for fake news," Bobb wrote. "I STRONGLY suggest that."

Bobb didn't pretend to be an independent observer about the ballot review.

"Remember we're on the same side," she wrote to Logan. "If you want to fight me, we both will lose."

Bobb said in an interview Jan. 19 she was pressuring Logan as a reporter, not on behalf of Trump.

“They needed to release the numbers. I remember that,” Bobb said. “I was holding him to the same standard that I was holding the election officials. Why don’t we have a result on election night? My personal opinion is when you are done counting, if you don’t release the numbers that looks sketchy. I’m not accusing anybody of doing anything wrong, but it raises a lot of questions.”

Asked whether she thought Logan did a good job on his final report, she said, “I don’t have a comment on that. I like Doug Logan. I think he’s great.”

:{:{Hobbs defends plan for state-funded travel for migrants[}:

Fann: 'We did not do this for Trump'

Fann sought to distance herself from Logan's fundraising efforts. She said it was clear when Logan said he needed to raise up to $5 million to pay for the audit that the money wasn't going to come from the Senate.

She said she did not know about any outreach to Trump or any other potential sources. Fann said her involvement with finances stopped with the Senate's authorization of audit expenses, which included $150,000 for Cyber Ninjas.

The audit has cost taxpayers so far about $5 million, the bulk of which came from Maricopa County. That includes legal fees it spent fighting with the Senate over access to voting information and the cost of new tabulation machines needed once the audit was completed.

Fann said the Senate's audit was a way to stand up for voters.

"We did this to do the right thing," she said. "We did this to answer questions. We did not do this for Trump."

Republic reporter Justin Price contributed to this article.

Reach reporter Ryan Randazzo at ryan.randazzo@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4331. Follow him on Twitter @UtilityReporter.

Reach reporter Robert Anglen atrobert.anglen@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8694. Follow him on Twitter @robertanglen.

---

am o

...The Conservative Groups Who Funded the Arizona “Audit”Records we previously obtained, reported on by Grid News, show the American Voting Rights Foundation (AVRF) — one of many organizations that channeled money to different efforts associated with the Big Lie — helped fund the Arizona Senate’s partisan “audit.”

On July 28, 2021, Cleta Mitchell, a lawyer who had assisted with Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the election, wrote an email to AVRF treasurer Tom Datwyler, Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan and “audit” spokesman Randy Pullen.

“Tom — Randy and Doug are sending invoices to wire $ to some AZ entities from American Voting Rights Foundation,” wrote Mitchell in an email we obtained. “Randy / Doug —… Can you please work with Tom to get the funds out today where the funds need to be sent?”

The next day, Mitchell sent another email indicating that AVRF had transferred $1 million to three groups and/or people associated with the Arizona “audit.”

Learn more about other groups who have funded the Big Lie and how they’re being investigated, here.

Prominent Republicans

According to an accompanying privilege log (which lists records that had been withheld because of legislative and other privileges), Senate President Karen Fann exchanged multiple texts with U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar in the spring regarding the investigation and its vendors. The new records also contain August emails between Fann and a member of Gosar’s staff regarding the release of the contractors’ final report. (Gosar appeared at the Jan. 6 “Stop the Steal” rally that preceded the attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters seeking to prevent the certification of the election.)

Records previously obtained by American Oversight included an April 22 email from Bruce Ash, the former national committeeman of the Arizona Republican Party, to Tommy Hicks, the co-chair of the Republican National Committee, in which Ash asked that the RNC help finance the defense against Democrats’ legal challenges to the “audit.” The latest records include more instances of audit allies attempting to get help from the national party: On July 17, audit spokesman Randy Pullen sent a text to Ash saying, “Need guns, lawyers, and money. Have any?”

The new records also indicate that Pullen was in touch with Reince Priebus, Trump’s first chief of staff and the former head of both the national and the Wisconsin Republican Party, as far back as December, before Pullen was officially involved in the “audit.” That month, Pullen texted Priebus to tell him about the potential for a “Forensic audit,” and in March asked Priebus for “suggestions on election audit firms.” (Priebus said he would check.) Another text from Pullen to Ash, sent on March 8, appears to reference Priebus: “I texted Reince and ask if he would like to help out on the audit,” Pullen said, then followed up to say they were speaking later that morning.

Conspiracy Theorists

The privilege log also indicates that top “audit” officials — including Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan, Senate Liaison Ken Bennett, and spokesman Randy Pullen — exchanged a number of emails with Shiva Ayyadurai, an election conspiracy theorist and anti-vaccine activist whose Twitter account was suspended back in February.

The records released by the Senate include a signed contract between Cyber Ninjas and a “Dr. Shiva,” a name Ayyadurai goes by among his followers. The contract is dated Aug. 3, 2021, and was sent to the United Liberty Coalition, a Phoenix-based group of supporters of former President Trump.

During a recent interview on Steve Bannon’s podcast, Reince Priebus reportedly said that the Wisconsin Assembly would be bringing in Ayyadurai to assist in its own partisan investigation of the 2020 election.

Another conspiracy theorist who appears in the Arizona Senate’s documents is Gail Golec, who has adopted the language of the QAnon conspiracy in her election-undermining activism. According to the records, Golec exchanged text messages with Senate President Karen Fann on Aug. 24 following the news that Logan and other members of the Cyber Ninjas team had contracted Covid-19. Golec recommended that Logan visit a site to purchase the livestock drug ivermectin. (Text messages indicate that upon hearing the news, Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward also told Fann that she hoped Logan had “gotten some Ivermectin and Zithromax.”) Golec also exchanged texts with Bennett in April, in which Golec said that the National Guard needed to be deployed to protect the audit from Black Lives Matter and antifa.

The records also appear to reference conspiracy theorist Bobby Piton, who according to records previously obtained by American Oversight had emailed Arizona legislators in December, calling for a vote recount. Those previous records also contain emails in which both Bennett and Pullen responded to outside inquiries by saying that they didn’t know who Piton was or whether he was involved.

The new records contain texts exchanged by Pullen and Liz Harris, a former Republican state legislative candidate who has been organizing direct canvassing operations that experts warn could amount to voter intimidation. On Dec. 16, Harris forwarded to Pullen a Dec. 16 text from “Bobby” requesting multiple decades’ worth of detailed voter information from all 15 counties in Arizona, not just Maricopa. Harris’s canvassing operations have recently been in the news again, with Harris denying any formal connections to the audit.

Trump Lawyers and Allies

In December, according to records previously obtained by American Oversight, One America News reporter Christina Bobb — who later began raising money for the “audit” — provided Fann with purported “evidence” of voter fraud, writing that Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani had “asked me to send you these declarations.” The newly released records include a group text from March 31 involving Fann and Bobb, with Giuliani also included, in which Fann passes along a document with a title that began “Pres. Fann audit hiring.”

Another Trump lawyer, Cleta Mitchell, was also looped in on a number of communications, including an Aug. 2 email chain started by Scott Sigman, a Pennsylvania attorney who appears to be handling the issuing of checks related to the “audit.” Sigman emailed Mitchell, Logan, Pullen, and Thomas Datwyler (the treasurer of a group called the American Voting Rights Foundation) seeking signatures for payments.

Pullen also received a text on April 22 from Jeff DeWit, the former CFO of NASA who previously served as Arizona treasurer, in which DeWit said he was preparing to send $175,000 to Guardian Defense Fund, the organization set up as a legal defense fund for Gosar, state Rep. Mark Finchem, and former state Rep. Anthony Kern following their attendance at the Jan. 6 “Stop the Steal” rally. DeWit asked Pullen, who was the fund’s treasurer, where to send the money; Pullen responded that “200 would be better but take what I can get.”

The next week, DeWit asked Pullen about a group called Fund The Audit, which Pullen said was being funded by former Overstock CEO (and current election conspiracist) Patrick Byrne. DeWit asked whether the group was “ok to donate to,” adding, “Trump asking.” Pullen said yes, and that it had raised $1.2 million so far.

In May, Pullen asked whether DeWit was familiar with Jenna Ellis, a lawyer who had worked with Giuliani on Trump’s farfetched legal challenges to the election. And on July 19, Pullen asked DeWit to call him, saying that “arpaio has some information for 45” — likely a reference to former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, and further suggesting that DeWit was relaying messages to the former president.

Audit Costs

The Senate originally provided $150,000 for the election “audit,” but in the months since the total cost ballooned to at least $6 million thanks to outside donations. Records included in Tuesday’s document production reveal how quickly the price tag rose: Among other payments, more than $400,000 went to private security contractor Law Enforcement Specialists, and the American Voting Rights Foundation sent $500,000 went to contractor CyFIR and $250,000 to StratTech Solutions. Another email from early August involving Sigman, Mitchell, and representatives of Wake Technology Services Inc., which left the operation in May, shows that AVRF wired $250,000 to Sigman to cover costs.

Other Records

Cyber Ninjas was hired by the state Senate in the spring, and questions remain about how the firm was selected, given its lack of election experience and previous statements by Logan in which he advanced conspiracy theories about voting machines. The privilege log indicates that communication between Logan and Fann began as early as Feb. 5, and texts released by the Senate on Tuesday include one from March 17 between Fann and a lobbyist who refers to “Doug.”

The newly released records also reveal that the deference to conspiracy theories and false allegations of voter fraud evident in Fann’s post-election communications has continued into recent months: On Aug. 23, Fann forwarded to Bennett, Pullen, and Logan an article about a report on missing Wisconsin ballots.

Finally, the new records also suggest that audit officials were in touch with former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman, who was hired to run the bogus election investigation initiated by Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos. On Aug. 7, Pullen texted a “Justice Michael G” with “Three big political points.” In response, the recipient wrote, “these are helpful fundings [sic].” The week before, Christina Bobb had asked Fann if she could share her contact information with Gableman; Fann replied, “Absolutely of course.”

Litigation

[LEGAL DOCS]

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PHOENIX(AP) — The Republican leader of Arizona's state Senate said Monday he has handed over records related to the 2020 presidential election to the FBI in the latest sign that the Trump administration is acting on the president's longstanding falsehoods about a race he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

Senate President Warren Petersen said in a social media post that he complied “late last week” with a federal grand jury subpoena for records related to a controversial audit of the election in Maricopa County that had been ordered by legislative Republicans.

“The FBI has the records,” Petersen said.

He did not immediately respond to requests for additional comment, and a spokesperson for Senate Republicans said in an email that Petersen “does not have anything to add outside of his X post at this time.” The FBI office in Phoenix did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

It marks the second time this year that the FBI has obtained records related to the 2020 election from the most populous county in a presidential battleground state, both of which Trump lost as he sought reelection. In January, the FBI seized ballots and other records from Georgia's Fulton County, which includes Atlanta, after the Justice Department sought a search warrant from a judge. The search warrant affidavit showed that the request relied on years-old claims, many of which had been thoroughly investigated and found to have no connection to widespread fraud.

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat, issued a scathing statement in response to Petersen's post, noting that multiple audits, independent investigations and legal challenges related to the 2020 presidential election found no evidence of widespread fraud that could have affected the outcome.

“Warren Petersen knows all of this. He has known it for years. He spread false stories of election fraud in 2020, and he remains an unrepentant election denier,” Mayes said. “What the Trump administration appears to be pursuing now is not a legitimate law enforcement inquiry. It is the weaponization of federal law enforcement in service of crackpots and lies.”

A firm hired by Republican lawmakers spent six months in 2021 searching for evidence of fraud in the previous year's presidential election, a process experts said was marred by bias and a flawed methodology. It explored outlandish conspiracy theories, such as dedicating time to checking for bamboo fibers on ballots to see if they were secretly shipped in from Asia.

The audit ended without producing proof to support former President Donald Trump’s false claims of a stolen election — and in fact found that Biden received 360 more votes than stated in the certified results for Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix.

The firm, Cyber Ninjas, also acknowledged that there were “no substantial differences” between its hand count of the ballots and the official count.

Previous reviews of the 2.1 million ballots by nonpartisan professionals who followed state law found no significant problem with the 2020 election in Maricopa County, which was run by Republicans then and now. Biden won the county by 45,000 votes and went on to win Arizona by 10,500 votes.

Federal officials took different routes to obtain election records in the two states. The Georgia case involved a judicially-approved search warrant that required the FBI to articulate grounds that probable cause exists to believe a crime was committed. In Arizona, the FBI relied on subpoenas, a law enforcement maneuver that does not require judicial sign-off or for prosecutors to assert that there’s probable cause of a crime.

The investigations into the 2020 election come as the Justice Department has clashed with a number of states, including some controlled by Republicans, over access to detailed voter data that includes names, dates of birth, addresses and partial Social Security numbers. Election officials have expressed concerns that providing the information would violate both state and federal data privacy laws, and that it could be used to remove people from state voter rolls.

Arizona is among the states the Justice Department has sued to obtain the voter information. Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, suggested that at least some Maricopa County voter files could be among the records Petersen gave the FBI. In a statement Monday, Fontes said his office was considering legal options “to secure personal voter information in the 2020 data that was shared.”

Calli Jones, a secretary of state spokesperson, said the office is assessing what was released to the FBI.

“This could be an end run by the Department of Justice to obtain unredacted voter files,” she said.

Associated Press writer Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.

616-ac5c5d2b-c37f-402d-971c-ed8437d91456

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ggl 5 26

[### Arizona audit draft: Republican-led election report confirms ...

ABC7 Los Angeles

https://abc7.com › post › arizona-audit-draft-2020-elect...](https://abc7.com/post/arizona-audit-draft-2020-election-donald-trump-joe-biden/11043786/)

Sep 24, 2021 — The review of Maricopa County's ballots cast in the 2020 election found a vote count nearly identical to what the county had previously ...

[### The 'audit' found no evidence of fraud. But Republicans say ...

Arizona Mirror

https://azmirror.com › 2021/09/24 › the-audit-found-n...](https://azmirror.com/2021/09/24/the-audit-found-no-evidence-of-fraud-but-republicans-say-its-the-smoking-gun-they-wanted/)

Sep 24, 2021 — The long-awaited results of the Arizona Senate's “audit” of the 2020 election in Maricopa County unequivocally concluded there was no ...

[### A GOP lawmaker's nonprofit was billed $400K for 'audit' ...

Arizona Mirror

https://azmirror.com › Briefs](https://azmirror.com/briefs/a-gop-lawmakers-nonprofit-was-billed-400k-for-audit-security/)

Sep 3, 2021 — Newly released documents show that the Arizona “audit” has spent more than $400000 to hire off-duty police officers to provide security for ...

[### How the Arizona Election 'Audit' Has Already Been ...

American Oversight

https://americanoversight.org › resource › how-the-ariz...](https://americanoversight.org/resource/how-the-arizona-election-audit-has-already-been-compromised/)

Efforts to undermine the 2020 presidential election results in Arizona have culminated in a partisan election “audit” of votes cast in Maricopa County.Read more

Missing: gop ‎| Show results with: gop

[### Arizona audit of 2020 election hits hand-count milestone

FOX 10 Phoenix

https://www.fox10phoenix.com › news › gop-arizona-e...](https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/gop-arizona-election-audit-hand-recount-completed-triggers-interest-in-secretary-of-state-race)

Jun 14, 2021 — FOX 10's Matt Galka reports. PHOENIX - A Republican-led hand recount of ballots cast in Arizona's most populous county hit a major milestone ...Read more

[### Finchem broke the law by not disclosing payment from ...

Tucson Sentinel

https://www.tucsonsentinel.com › local › report › 02232...](https://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/022321_new_finchem_complaint/)

Feb 23, 2021 — The Campaign for Accountability is asking AZ Secretary of State Katie Hobbs to investigate whether Oro Valley Republican legislator Mark ...

[### Arizona election audit: Draft report confirms Biden defeated ...

CNN

https://www.cnn.com › arizona-election-review-results](https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/24/politics/arizona-election-review-results)

Sep 24, 2021 — The final report produced by Cyber Ninjas, the company hired by Arizona Senate Republicans to conduct a months-long, partisan review of the ...

[### How the Arizona Senate Audit in Maricopa County Is an ...

The Century Foundation

https://tcf.org › Publications](https://tcf.org/content/report/arizona-senate-audit-maricopa-county-assault-voting-rights/)

Jul 1, 2021 — The continued proliferation of "The Big Lie," the baseless claim that the 2020 presidential election outcome was the result of massive fraud ...

[### Arizona 'audit': Election challenge continued after Jan. 6. ...

azcentral.com and The Arizona Republic

https://www.azcentral.com › elections › 2021/11/19 › a...](https://www.azcentral.com/in-depth/news/politics/elections/2021/11/19/arizona-election-challenge-continued-long-after-capitol-riot-heres-why/6045214001/)

Nov 19, 2021 — The narrative of a stolen election encouraged Arizona Senate President Karen Fann to push ahead with a partisan ballot review.

[### The Republican leader of Arizona's state Senate says he ...

Facebook · 13News Now - WVEC

40+ reactions · 1 month ago](https://www.facebook.com/13NewsNow/posts/the-republican-leader-of-arizonas-state-senate-says-he-has-complied-with-a-feder/1337557655085755/)

The Republican leader of Arizona's state Senate says he has complied with a federal grand jury subpoena for records related to the 2020 ...

---

Sigman, Scott Philip

Public InformationPending ProceedingsHistory

Attorney ID:88151Current Status:ActiveDate of Admission:12/3/2001Employer:Law Offices of Scott SigmanAddress:2016 SPRUCE STREET

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA 19103Country:UNITED STATESTelephone:(215) 715-5720 545-6138](tel:%28215%29%20545-6138)County:PHILADELPHIADistrict:District 1

Professional Liability Insurance:

I maintain, either individually or through my firm, professional liability insurance of at least $100,000 per occurrence and $300,000 in the aggregate per year as set forth in Rule of Professional Conduct 1.4(c).

DB No.:43 DB 2012Type:ReinstatementDate of Order:8/17/2016Comments:Reinstatement GrantedReport:See Order/OpinionDB No.:43 DB 2012Type:SuspendedDate of Order:2/28/2013Comments:On Consent 30 Month SuspensionReport:See Order/Opinion

suspended 30 mos , flase sytatements, beef bochetto

5 26

[### Scott P. Sigman

Scott P. Sigman

https://scottsigman.com](https://scottsigman.com/)

LAW OFFICES OF SCOTT SIGMAN Criminal Defense & Civil Litigation. “An experienced Trial Attorney Fighting For You”. 2016 Spruce Street Philadelphia, Pa 19103Read more

Missing: gop ‎republican

[### Scott Sigman - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

LinkedIn · Scott Sigman

23.1K+ followers](https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottsigman)

Mr. Sigman received his law degree in 2001 from Temple University where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Temple International and Comparative Law Journal.Read more

Missing: gop ‎| Show results with: gop

[### Scott Sigman (@scottsigmanesq)

Facebook · Scott Sigman

5.6K+ followers](https://www.facebook.com/scottsigmanesq/)

Scott Sigman. 5540 likes · 94 talking about this. Scott Sigman is a criminal defense attorney in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. US /Italia.

Missing: gop ‎| Show results with: gop

[### Philadelphia, PA Litigation Lawyer - Scott Philip Sigman

Avvo.com

https://www.avvo.com › ... › Philadelphia › Litigation](https://www.avvo.com/attorneys/19103-pa-scott-sigman-411067.html)

Find Pennsylvania attorney Scott Philip Sigman in their Philadelphia office. Practices Litigation, White collar crime, Personal injury.

4.0(4) · Price range: $ 225-475 per hour

Missing: gop ‎republican

[### Sigman, Scott Philip

PA Disciplinary Board

https://www.padisciplinaryboard.org › attorney-detail](https://www.padisciplinaryboard.org/for-the-public/find-attorney/attorney-detail/88151)

Attorney ID: 88151; Current Status: Active; Date of Admission: 12/3/2001; Employer: Law Offices of Scott Sigman; Address: 2016 SPRUCE STREETRead more

Missing: gop ‎republican

[### Great Scott!

Super Lawyers

https://www.superlawyers.com › Articles › Pennsylvania](https://www.superlawyers.com/articles/pennsylvania/great-scott/)

As a city prosecutor, Scott P. Sigman made waves by bringing WMD charges against drug runners. Now he's employing his trademark intensity at Bochetto & Lentz.Read more

Missing: gop ‎republican

[### How the Arizona Election 'Audit' Has Already Been ...

American Oversight

https://americanoversight.org › resource › how-the-ariz...](https://americanoversight.org/resource/how-the-arizona-election-audit-has-already-been-compromised/)

Another Trump lawyer, Cleta Mitchell, was also looped in on a number of communications, including an Aug. 2 email chain started by Scott Sigman, a Pennsylvania ...Read more

Missing: gop ‎| Show results with: gop

[### Resume

Scott P. Sigman

https://scottsigman.com › resume](https://scottsigman.com/resume/)

Trial attorney concentrating in the areas of criminal defense, white collar defense, drug forfeiture, and civil litigation.Read more

Missing: gop ‎republican

Pullen Randy

cyber Ninjas' ties to Trump during Arizona election 'audit' revealed in messages

Trump was watching, chatting with broadcaster

Messages sought updates on counting, funding

Fann unaware of some connections to Trump

'Is God really going to come through?'

Fann: 'We did not do this for Trump'

Other Stories We’re Following

The January 6 Investigations

“Audits” and other efforts to undermine elections

Prominent Republicans

Conspiracy Theorists

Trump Lawyers and Allies

Audit Costs

Other Records

Litigation

Sigman, Scott Philip