Michigan attorney moves to release findings from Dominion voting machines forensic audit in Antrim County
A Michigan attorney wants to release the findings from a forensic audit of Dominion Voting Systems equipment for the public to see.
Matthew DePerno, who is representing an Antrim County resident behind a lawsuit challenging a local marijuana retailer proposal, told Newsmax TV on Friday that his broader ambition is to convince state lawmakers to overturn the results of the presidential election with what he says is evidence of voting machine tampering.
"We've called on Mike Shirkey, who is the Senate majority leader in the Michigan Senate, to send a separate slate of electors to Lansing, Republican electors, based on what we think we have found," he told host Greg Kelly, who asked if there was any way to flip Michigan.
"I filed an emergency motion this afternoon with the Antrim County Circuit Court asking them to lift a protective order so that we can release the results of the forensic examination to the American people, to the Michigan House of Representatives, to the Michigan Senate, and to anyone else who wants to see the results so they can judge for themselves how the system operates," DePerno added.
The emergency motion says the "initial preliminary results" are "an issue of national security" and "important for the public, the U.S. government and the Michigan Legislature to review and understand."
William Bailey, a realtor and member of Antrim County’s planning commission, filed the lawsuit to challenge a local marijuana retailer proposal that barely passed after three ballots were not included in a retabulation because they had been damaged.
A judge allowed Bailey and a team to conduct a forensic audit of Dominion hardware last weekend, after which Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson warned of an effort to spread "false information designed to erode the public’s confidence in the election." Michigan Circuit Court Judge Kevin Elsenheimer ruled in favor of the state’s motion during a Thursday hearing conducted virtually over Zoom to allow Benson to intervene in the case.
The case, which lists Antrim County as the defendant, gained outsize publicity and attention from President Trump’s legal team and his allies because of the focus on Dominion voting machines and the forensic audit. Antrim County first drew national headlines a couple of weeks ago after votes were found to be counted incorrectly in unofficial results in the Republican-leaning county. Officials determined it was human error, in particular a failure to update software, that resulted in 6,000 votes erroneously being tabulated for President-elect Joe Biden rather than Trump.
Dominion Voting Systems, whose machines were used in Antrim and in other places across the country, has vociferously denied allegations about the company being involved in a massive voter fraud scheme, billing them as being part of a "disinformation" effort. And although Trump and allies, including attorney Sidney Powell, claim there was widespread fraud that stole the election from the president, high-level members of Trump's own government, including Attorney General William Barr, have said they have not seen evidence to support those claims.
The Trump legal team and other associated groups have filed a litany of lawsuits in the Wolverine State, which Biden won by more than 150,000 votes, and elsewhere seeking to turn the election results, but those efforts have largely fallen flat. They are also hoping to convince GOP-led legislatures in multiple battleground states to dispute Biden's victory and instead send Trump's electors to Congress.
The information gathered in the Antrim County forensic audit on Sunday is subject to a court-issued protective order that restricts the “use, distribution or manipulation of the forensic images and/or other information gleaned from the forensic investigation†without court permission, according to the Traverse City Record-Eagle.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessell's office issued a press release on Friday to respond to "what appears to be a swirl of misinformation being circulated among Republican activists accusing the Department of Attorney General of suppressing information."
This followed former state Sen. Patrick Colbeck, identified as a "Michigan election challenger," telling Fox Business host Lou Dobbs on Thursday in a viral interview that Elsenheimer "ruled in favor of an order that was requested by the attorney general, Dana Nessell of Michigan, to prohibit the disclosure of those forensic results."
Kelly Rossman-McKinney, the communications director of the Michigan Department of Attorney General, said that during Thursday's hearing, "the plaintiff’s attorney indicated that the results of the inspection of the Antrim County tabulator being conducted by the plaintiff and his agents has not been completed. Therefore, no information regarding the inspection has been made available to Judge Elsenheimer, Secretary Benson, or the Department of Attorney General Dana Nessel. Further, this information is already subject to a protective order issued by Judge Elsenheimer.â€
During his Newsmax interview on Friday, DePerno mentioned that his team has been running an analysis of the forensic audit since Sunday.
"The secretary of state, Jocelyn Benson, said it happened by human error. We've discovered that's not true. That's a lie," he said, again accusing Dominion of being the perpetrator of fraud.
Dominion CEO John Poulos sent a letter to Michigan Senate Oversight Committee Chairman Ed McBroom, a Republican, saying that his company is open to having a representative testify next week.
“I appreciate the opportunity to correct the baseless and defamatory claims being made about our systems. They are harmful not only to Dominion, but also to the countless hardworking election officials across the State, as well all Michigan public officials elected through a fair process,†Poulos said.
Benson’s office said on Wednesday that a zero-margin risk-limiting audit will be conducted in Antrim County in December to ensure further the veracity of the results and offer increased transparency.
The judge is expected to hold a hearing on DePerno's request to lift the protective order on Monday, the same day Michigan's presidential electors are set to convene in Lansing.
Tags: News, Michigan, Election Lawsuits, 2020 Elections, Campaign 2020, Donald Trump, Campaigns, Law
Original Author: Daniel Chaitin
Original Location: Michigan attorney moves to release findings from Dominion voting machines forensic audit in Antrim County
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