Sidney Powell (R) speaks to fellow Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani during a press conference at the Republican National Committee headquarters, Washington, November 19, 2020 (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
Donald Trump’s lawyers, trying to overturn his defeat in the November 2020 vote, gave sensitive data to election deniers, conspiracy theorists, and right-wing commentators.
Georgia-based computer forensics firm SullivanStrickler, hired by the attorneys, put the files on a server for download. The dissemination was discovered by plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit concerning the security of Georgia’s voting systems. They obtained the records from SullivanStrickler through a subpoena of one of its executives.
Among those who obtained the material were John Basham, a Texas meteorologist and election denier who has appeared on the radio show of Trump’s friend and Fox TV polemicist Sean Hannity; podcaster Joe Oltmann, who has called for gallows to be built to “take care of all these traitors to our nation”; former Michigan state senator Patrick Colbeck, who has promoted conspiracy theories about election fraud; former pro surfer Conan Hayes, who promoted falsehoods that the 2020 election was manipulated; and Michal Pospieszalski, a former “seduction and pickup coach” who claims he was a hacker.
Forensic images from the systems were also shared in a “symposium” in South Dakota in August 2021 by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, a close friend of Trump who aggressively pushed falsehoods and conspiracy theories about the vote.
The data files are copies of electoral system material from Coffee County, Georgia, and Antrim County, Michigan, two areas where Trumpists falsely claimed that votes were switched from Trump to Democratic victor Joe Biden.
Significantly, the records include contracts between SullivanStrickler and Trump attorneys such as Sidney Powell, who spread unfounded conspiracy theories.
SullivanStrickler was hired in late November 2020 by the Trump camp in an effort to copy software and other data from county election systems. The firm was able to access election equipment in Georgia, Michigan, and Nevada.
US voting systems are “critical infrastructure”, and access to them is tightly regulated. On August 15, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation opened “a computer trespass investigation” over the elections server in Coffee County. Under Georgia law, knowingly using a computer or network without authority and with the intention of deleting, altering, or interfering with programs or data is a felony.
In December 2020, weeks after SullivanStrickler was commissioned, the Trump camp drafted an executive order authorizing Donald Trump to seize voting machines.
Two days later, a White House meeting including Trump, Powell, disgraced former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, and former Trump Administration lawyer Emily Newman considered the seizure of the machines by the military and appointment of Powell as a special counsel to investigate the election.
Amid objections by White House lawyers, the order was never issued.
Trump Considered Seizure of Voting Machines in December 2020
The greatest obstacle to returning to the Iran deal isn’t Iran — it’s Congress: https://thehill.com/opinion/international/3605776-the-greatest-obstacle-to-returning-to-the-iran-deal-isnt-iran-its-congress/
“A growing public perception that Iran is stalling for time or is attempting to hide undeclared nuclear activity could drive anti-JCPOA sentiment. And if it passed the Senate, it would be privileged in the House, meaning the House would be compelled to vote on it too.”
I don’t think the Dems will be as united in support of a JCPOA renewal as the they were in 2015. If the US has made many concessions to Iran, without getting anything major in return, I suspect many Dem senators will vote against re-adoption.