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Voter "Fraud" or voter disenfranchisement?
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real-human



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PostPosted: Thu Dec 29, 2022 7:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-voter-fraud-lies-2659040903/


Trump allies were desperate to 'conjure up' voter fraud — but they couldn't find any: former prosecutor


Quote:

On Thursday's edition of CNN's "The Situation Room," former federal prosecutor Elie Honig tore into former President Donald Trump's associates for doing everything in their power to hunt for voter fraud, despite the fact that there wasn't any and they appeared to know there wasn't any.


This came after the release of a transcript from Christina Bobb, a Trump attorney, who revealed a damning conversation Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) had with her.

"According to this new transcript from a Trump lawyer, Senator Lindsey Graham ... said 'Just give me five dead voters,'" said anchor Wolf Blitzer. "That's a direct quote. How desperate were Trump's allies to find anything to back up their false claims of voter fraud?"

"Well, Wolf, one thing that jumps out to me from these transcripts is they knew they had nothing," said Honig. "Whether it's Lindsey Graham, Donald Trump Jr., these transcripts show us that in the hours and days after the votes were actually cast in November, they realized they had lost, they realized their only hope was to conjure up these claims of voter fraud, and they just couldn't find any."




READ MORE: Republicans in Biden districts throw down the gauntlet at GOP rebels over bid to block McCarthy

A case in point, said Honig, is the fact that Graham "apparently wasn't even able to get anything enough to satisfy him on that small ask" to find five dead voters.

'The point here is they knew they needed some evidence of voter fraud, they had absolutely none, yet they claimed it anyway," said Honig.


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PostPosted: Thu Jan 12, 2023 11:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

as we know from all political crimes this is so typical of right wingers and intentional vote fraud. Just look at the Jan 6, that is how far the typical republicans will go and those are heros to the republican party....

will the real vote frauders and supporters of political criminal acts please stand up. you lying cowards. cowards...

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/republican-candidate-s-wife-arrested-charged-with-casting-23-fraudulent-votes-for-her-husband-in-the-2020-election/ar-AA16hJmX?cvid=1d3d3598c29f4139adda8e7a502486c0&ocid=winp2fptaskbarhover

Republican candidate's wife arrested, charged with casting 23 fraudulent votes for her husband in the 2020 election


Quote:
Kim Phuong Taylor was arrested Thursday and accused of multiple counts of voter fraud.
According to prosecutors, Taylor cast 23 fraudulent votes for her husband in the 2020 election.
Jeremy Taylor, the husband, is an elected Republican.
The wife of an Iowa Republican who ran for Congress in 2020 was arrested Thursday and accused of casting 23 fraudulent votes on behalf of her husband.

In an 11-page indictment, prosecutors allege that Kim Phuong Taylor "visited numerous households within the Vietnamese community in Woodbury County," where she collected absentee ballots for people who were not present at the time. Taylor, who was born in Vietnam, then filled out and cast those ballots herself, the indictment alleges, "causing the casting of votes in the names of residents who had no knowledge of and had not consented to the casting of their ballots."

Taylor is also accused of signing voter registration forms on behalf of residents who were not present. In all, prosecutors allege, she engaged in 26 counts of providing false information and voting, three counts of fraudulent registration, and 23 counts of fraudulent voting. Each charge carries a maximum 5-year prison sentence.

The aim, prosecutors allege, was to get her husband, Republican politician Jeremy Taylor, elected to public office.


Jeremy Taylor ran in the 2020 GOP primary for Iowa's 4th congressional district, which at the time was represented by Steve King, a far-right politician with ties to white nationalists. Taylor ended up finishing third, garnering just over 6,400 votes.

But Taylor was more successful in the fall 2020 general election, where he ran as a Republican candidate for the Woodbury County Board of Supervisors. He currently serves as the board's vice chairperson. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The couple met while Jeremy Taylor was teaching at a university in Vietnam, according to his official biography. They have six children.

Kim Taylor's court-appointed attorney, John P. Greer, declined to comment on behalf of his client. According to court documents, she is currently out on bai

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PostPosted: Mon Jan 16, 2023 4:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/list-of-republicans-committing-voter-fraud-continues-to-grow-159917637840?

List of Republicans committing voter fraud continues to grow


Quote:

As Donald Trump clings to claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election, Republicans are still making headlines for actually committing voter fraud. Mehdi Hasan updates the list.

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Last edited by real-human on Fri Apr 21, 2023 8:04 am; edited 1 time in total
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 18, 2023 2:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/more-charges-expected-in-gop-scheme-to-cheat-new-york-elections/ar-AA1a0geQ?ocid=winp2fptaskbarhover&cvid=aa9420d9dd65465b8dd86bf601a80699&ei=46

More charges expected in GOP scheme to cheat New York elections


Quote:
Raw Story
Raw Story
More charges expected in GOP scheme to cheat New York elections
Story by Travis Gettys • 6h ago

More charges could be filed soon in a federal grand jury investigation into the handling of absentee ballot documents by county officials in New York, following the guilty pleas of a pair of Republican elected officials there.


Two sources briefed on the matter told The Times Union that the yearlong investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice is nearing an end and has revealed numerous instances where Renssleaer County employees under the direction of operations director Richard W. Crist, a longtime GOP operative and political consultant, were enlisted to perform political campaign work.

Much of that work was related to securing absentee ballots, although it's not clear whether that was undertaken on county time or whether that's even part of the DOJ investigation, the newspaper reported.

Jason T. Schofield, the county's former Republican elections commissioner, and Republican Troy councilwoman Kimberly Ashe-McPherson have already pleaded guilty to election fraud-related charges.

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Schofield admitted in January to 12 counts of unlawfully using the names and dates of birth of voters to fraudulently apply for absentee ballots for elections held in 2021, and Ashe-McPherson admitted last year to one felony count of fraudulently submitting absentee ballots in the 2021 primary and general elections while seeking re-election.

Investigators have interviewed county employee and others who may have had absentee ballots submitted without their knowledge, and last year the grand jury received documents related to elections in 2020 and 2021, along with cell phones belonging to Crist and Gordon.

Another subpoena several months ago sought absentee documents that may have been handled by county employees Leslie A. Wallace and Sara J. McDermott, who has been described as a GOP operative, along with absentee ballot documents handled by Crist and Gordon.

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PostPosted: Thu Apr 20, 2023 8:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/04/20/politics/mike-lindell-2020-election/index.html

My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell ordered to follow through with $5 million payment to expert who debunked his false election data


Quote:
Washington
CNN

My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell has been ordered to shell out $5 million to an expert who debunked his data related to the 2020 election, according to a decision by the arbitration panel obtained by CNN.

Lindell, a purveyor of election conspiracies, vowed to award the multimillion-dollar sum to any cyber security expert who could disprove his data. An arbitration panel awarded Robert Zeidman, who has decades in software development experience, a $5 million payout on Wednesday after he sued Lindell over the sum.

CNN has obtained arbitration documents and video depositions, including a deposition of Lindell, related to the dispute.

“Based on the foregoing analysis, Mr. Zeidman performed under the contract,” the arbitration panel wrote in its decision. “He proved the data Lindell LLC provided, and represented reflected information from the November 2020 election, unequivocally did not reflect November 2020 election data. Failure to pay Mr. Zeidman the $5 million prized was a breach of the contract, entitling him to recover.”

The decision marks yet another blow to the MyPillow CEO’s credibility after he publicly touted unproven claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election. Lindell has also faced defamation suits related to his election claims.

“The lawsuit and verdict mark another important moment in the ongoing proof that the 2020 election was legal and valid, and the role of cybersecurity in ensuring that integrity,” said Brian Glasser, founder of Bailey & Glasser, LLP, who represented Zeidman. “Lindell’s claim to have 2020 election data has been definitively disproved.”

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PostPosted: Wed May 03, 2023 12:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/top-gop-figures-charged-in-ballot-fraud-case-out-of-new-york/ar-AA1aEz2l?ocid=winp2fptaskbarhover&cvid=1afc2cb7b5a64cacda6cada077c27e1e&ei=17

Top GOP figures charged in ballot fraud case out of New York


Quote:

Three New York county officials linked to the local GOP were indicted last week on charges related to ballot fraud, WAMC reported.

Richard Crist, James Gordon, and Leslie Wallace, all Rensselaer County officials, were arrested and charged Thursday with conspiring to violate the rights of county voters during the 2021 election cycle. The alleged plot apparently exploited relaxed absentee ballot requirements that were in place during the pandemic.

Rensselaer's former Democratic Mayor Rich Mooney said that "during the campaign of 2021, myself, my team, noticed some irregularities with absentee ballots."

"During the recount of the election of 2021 we challenged up to 60 ballots that we thought were tainted and not legitimate ballots. Well, along with that, we had an individual come forward, who told us that he did not request an absentee ballot and one was released to a Republican operative in his name and had voted for him," Mooney said. "That individual had the courage to sign an affidavit. And we took that to the state police. And that is what started the ballot fraud investigation in the city of Rensselaer and Rensselaer County.”

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PostPosted: Mon May 29, 2023 2:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/liz-cheney-explains-how-gop-begged-her-to-lie-about-trump/ar-AA1bQJxI?cvid=1c0f0f81ec4145e3cf0988f9ee682e46&ocid=winp2fptaskbarhover&ei=13

Liz Cheney explains how GOP begged her to lie about Trump


Quote:

Former Congresswoman Liz Cheney spoke about the political test she faced in the immediate aftermath of January 6 during her address to graduates of Colorado College this weekend.

Ms Cheney, once a member of Republican leadership and now a pariah in her own party, spoke to graduates on Sunday. She graduated from the school with a degree in political science in 1988.

The ex-lawmaker has left open the possibility of running for office again in the future after her defeat in Wyoming’s GOP primary to now-Congresswoman Harriet Hageman last year. She has even hinted that she may run for president in 2024, setting herself up for a potential debate-stage clash with former President Donald Trump himself.

“After the 2020 election and the attack of January 6th, my fellow Republicans wanted me to lie. They wanted me to say the 2020 election was stolen, the attack of January 6th wasn’t a big deal, and Donald Trump wasn’t dangerous,” she told students and families in her address Sunday, according to the Associated Press. “I had to choose between lying and losing my position in House leadership.”

s a ‘good news story.’ Here’s why consumers need to proceed with caution

The former congresswoman also referenced recent comments by an adviser to Mr Trump, Cleta Mitchell, who recently told a Republican National Committee gathering that the GOP should work to make it harder for college students to vote, given the demographic’s progressive bent. The comments, Ms Cheney said, were an example of the Trump movement’s continued threat to American democracy.


“Cleta Mitchell, an election denier and adviser to former President Trump, told a gathering of Republicans recently that it is crucially important to make sure that college students don’t vote,” Ms Cheney said. “Those who are trying to unravel the foundations of our republic, who are threatening the rule of law and the sanctity of our elections, know they can’t succeed if you vote.”

She would be a longshot contender for the GOP nomination, given the Republican primary electorate’s continued support for Mr Trump. There’s little reason to suggest that any Cheney 2024 bid would end differently than her 2022 bid for re-election, where her refusal to support Mr Trump’s continued lies and conspiracies about his loss to Joe Biden cost her a seat in Congress.

But she remains an active player on the national stage, maintaining her political profile, as she and other anti-Trump Republicans like Maryland’s Larry Hogan and New Hampshire’s Chris Sununu bide their time and hunt for openings and opportunities in a party that by and large no longer resembles them.

Though Ms Cheney’s defeat marked a pattern of Trump rivals losing their races in 2022, the former president’s work to purge the GOP of his enemies was not without its own setbacks; in two key races in Georgia, where Mr Trump and his legal team sought to overturn the valid results of the 2020 election, the former president saw two Republican who had opposed those efforts, Gov Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, re-elected against his endorsement.

From news to politics, travel to sport, culture to climate – The Independent has a host of free newsletters to suit your interests. To find the stories you want to read, and more, in your inbox, click here.

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PostPosted: Wed Jun 21, 2023 5:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/georgia-election-board-finds-no-conspiracy-no-fraud-2020-results-rcna90368?

Georgia election board finds no conspiracy, no fraud in 2020 results


Quote:
It’s no secret that Donald Trump lied about Georgia’s 2020 elections, but as the NBC affiliate in Atlanta reported overnight, state officials have now officially closed the book on one of the most notorious Republican claims.

Officials said Tuesday that the State Election Board had dismissed the case related to the “suitcases full of ballots” allegations at State Farm Arena on Election Night 2020. The State Farm Arena episode was central to former President Donald Trump’s claims that Georgia had fraudulent election results in favor of President Joe Biden. Instead, the long-running investigation by the state determined the claims related to that night were “false and unsubstantiated.”

To be sure, these are not exactly new revelations. Nevertheless, officials on Georgia’s state board of elections yesterday took the formal step of closing the case altogether.

“We are glad the state election board finally put this issue to rest,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said. “False claims and knowingly false allegations made against these election workers have done tremendous harm. Election workers deserve our praise for being on the front lines.”

In a press statement, Raffensperger said the conspiracy theories were scrutinized by investigators from his office, as well as special agents with the FBI and GBI, who collectively concluded that there was “no evidence of any type of fraud as alleged.” They similarly found that allegations of wrongdoing against election workers were “unsubstantiated and found to have no merit.”

In case anyone needs a refresher, let’s revisit our earlier coverage and review how we arrived at this point.

In the immediate aftermath of his election defeat, Trump said election workers in Atlanta corrupted the vote tallies by taking improper ballots from suitcases. The claims were immediately discredited, not just by independent journalists, but also by his own Justice Department. As Rachel noted on the show several months ago, former acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue told the outgoing president directly that the matter had been reviewed by federal law enforcement and the accusations were baseless.

After one conversation in which the then-president referenced an imagined suitcase filled with fraudulent ballots, Donoghue told Trump, “No, sir, there is no suitcase. You can watch that video over and over. There is no suitcase. There is a wheeled bin where they carried the ballots. And that’s just how they moved ballots around that facility. There’s nothing suspicious about that at all.”

Trump, in other words, was told the truth, which he rejected. Worse, the Republican turned his lies into attacks that put innocent election workers in danger: Trump and some of his rabid followers decided that Shaye Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman, who had taken a temp job helping count ballots, were directly and personally responsible for including fake ballots in Georgia’s election tally.

He kept the smear campaign going — for roughly two years.

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In fact, Trump claimed to have evidence against them in the form of a video in which Moss and Freeman could be seen doing their jobs. What conspiracy theorists said were “suitcases” of bogus ballots were really just standard boxes used locally to transport actual ballots.

The video — which showed nothing nefarious or untoward — nevertheless made the rounds in conservative media and in far-right circles, with Republicans insisting that the images showed election fraud, reality be damned. Trump even put it on screen during one of his post-defeat political rallies. It was around this time when radical activists threatened the women’s lives and showed up at their homes.

Freeman, a retiree who started a small boutique business selling fashion accessories, was forced to flee her house, close her business, and move to an undisclosed location on the advice of the FBI for her own safety.

These women, who’d done nothing wrong, were terrorized because of a ridiculous lie.

On Tuesday, a member of Georgia’s state board of elections requested that Moss and Freeman receive a formal letter “affirmatively telling them that the matter has been dismissed.”

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PostPosted: Wed Aug 02, 2023 11:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/arizona-republicans-wanted-to-hand-count-ballots-then-they-saw-the-price-tag-and-the-errors/ar-AA1eIonG?ocid=winp2fptaskbarhover&cvid=cde2c50ab62d47e38fcc5360159e76f7&ei=60

Arizona Republicans wanted to hand-count ballots. Then they saw the price tag — and the errors.


Quote:
n Arizona county has decided not to hand-count its ballots in next year’s presidential race, after discovering that it would cost more than a million dollars and leave it with inaccurate results.

The all-Republican Board of Supervisors in Mohave County voted 3-2 against forgoing ballot counting machines in favor of hand-counting in 2024, after months of debate, questions on the legality, and a three-day test run.

“I’m willing to have further conversations about this, but the first thing that we have to do in Mohave County in good conscious is to balance the budget. You can’t talk about any other spending when you have 18 — 20 million dollar deficit,” said Supervisor Travis Lingenfelter, a Republican, before voting against a proposal to hand count all the ballots in 2024. “That’s irresponsible.”

Some conservatives, including allies of former President Donald Trump, have pushed hand-counting ballots as a way to ensure the accuracy of election results. But Mohave County's experience punctures that talking point, showing that hand-counting is typically expensive, inaccurate and impractical.

In short, hand-counting ballots isn’t as easy as it sounds.

Mohave County, home to an estimated 220,000 people in the northwestern corner of Arizona, is one of a handful of U.S. counties that has considered hand-counting ballots, thanks in part to election conspiracy theories that have driven distrust in ballot tabulators.

After the 2020 election, the Arizona state Senate authorized a controversial hand-count audit of two races. The audit took months and cost millions, and — by its leadership’s own account in text messages obtained by The Arizona Republic — failed to result in an accurate count.

But that hasn’t quelled interest in Arizona. Earlier this year, the Republican-controlled state legislature passed a measure authorizing hand counts, which was vetoed by Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs.

In June, the Mohave County’s Board of Supervisors asked the county elections office to develop a plan for tabulating 2024 results by hand. Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, warned Mohave’s county supervisors in a June letter that they risked breaking the law if they chose to opt for hand-counting in a future election. A lawyer for the county told supervisors before they voted that the county’s legal team wasn’t sure it was legal, either.


The test run took place in late June, when elections workers spent three days hand-counting a batch of 850 test ballots from the 2022 election, bringing in seven part-time staffers eight-hour days of counting and four full-time staffers who monitored the process.

Elections Director Allen Tempert told the Board of Supervisors at a Tuesday meeting that the group was a “dream team” of experienced staffers, but the feasibility study nonetheless went poorly.

There were counting errors in 46 of 30,600 races on the ballots, as the team tallying the results of the election made mistakes. According to a report prepared for the Board of Supervisors, some of the observed errors included: bored and tired staffers who stopped watching the process, messy handwriting in tallies, fast talkers, or staffers who heard or said the wrong candidate’s name.

Each ballot took three minutes to count, Tempert said. At that pace, it would take a group of seven staffers at least 657 eight-hour days to count 105,000 ballots, the number of ballots cast in 2020. Mohave County would need to hire at least 245 people to tally results and have counting take place seven days a week, including holidays, for nearly three weeks. That estimate doesn’t include the time needed for reconciling mistakes, or counting write-in ballots, Tempert’s report added.

Tempert forcefully recommended waiting until Election Day to conduct the hand-count, because he feared results would leak out otherwise. But doing so would leave the county in a time crunch, too: The county would have just 19 days after the election to tally up the ballots, in accordance with state law on canvassing results.

The total cost for the staffing, renting for a large venue for the counting, security cameras, and other associated costs was staggering: $1,108,486.

“That’s larger than my budget for the whole year, to run the whole election for the whole year!” Tempert said.

Gowri Ramachandran, an elections expert and attorney from the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, said the experiment was notable.

“There actually hasn’t been a lot of experimentation with hands counting full ballots — meaning all the contests on a ballot in a jurisdiction where you have a lot of contests on the ballot,” she said. Ballots had, on average, 36 races each in the test, according to the report.

But Ramachandran said the cost and time it takes to conduct audits and recounts made the results predictable.

“When you put those experiences together," she said, "it’s extremely unsurprising what they found in Mohave County."

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PostPosted: Thu Nov 16, 2023 4:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-investigations/2023/11/16/trump-allies-use-disinformation-to-seize-maga-movement-spyware-executive-says/71252811007/

Trump allies orchestrate disinformation plot to take control of MAGA, spyware executive says


Quote:
BALTIMORE — A cybersecurity operative with ties to foreign intelligence agencies said ongoing efforts to subvert the 2020 election are part of a "disinformation campaign" that goes beyond restoring former President Donald Trump to power.

The owner of New-York based XRVision said his company was among a network of cyber firms recruited by lawyers and middlemen working on Trump's behalf to attack election results across the country.

Yaacov Apelbaum said the goal never was to find and expose election fraud: Instead, it was an excuse to foment chaos around America's voting system that political operatives could exploit to wrest control of the powerful MAGA movement.

Former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne are among the key orchestrators attempting to take over what Trump started, Apelbaum told the USA TODAY Network.

"The group, the same crowd, they plant seeds and let them germinate ... they want to destabilize faith in government," he said. "A lot of activity by Flynn and others is to take over the movement."

Apelbaum — who holds surveillance and spyware patents, has worked for governments around the globe and was among the first to analyze data from Hunter Biden's laptop — said Flynn, Byrne and others are "liquifying reality," a term rooted in counterintelligence operations.

Apelbaum has made dubious claims in the past. His familiarity with intelligence tactics and frequent collaboration with the far-right Gateway Pundit website — known for spreading false reports — raise questions about whether he's employing a disinformation campaign of his own.

Background:Lawsuit: Cybersecurity firm was instructed to lie about 2020 Pa. voting machine hacks

But Apelbaum was also the first to detail how Republican allies of Trump bankrolled voting machine breaches in four swing states.

A federal lawsuit filed by XRVision in July accused a wealthy Trump donor of funneling money through a Michigan lawyer to a network of cybersecurity firms hired to carry out the scheme.

Apelbaum's legal claims are backed by business, financial and communication records independently verified by the USA TODAY Network. Those include tens of thousands of text messages from Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan, who facilitated data breaches in Georgia and Michigan and led the discredited "audit" of election results in Arizona.

XRVision was enlisted to analyze voting machine data obtained from a rural Pennsylvania county, according to the lawsuit. When the firm's employees refused to falsify evidence of fraud, the lawsuit claims, XRVision was defamed and stiffed out of $550,000.

Apelbaum said he responded with an intelligence-gathering operation. He targeted Flynn, Byrne and other key Trump allies who planned and executed data breaches shortly after Trump's election loss in November 2020.

Apelbaum said he used cellphone and other data to establish the ties between a network of operators engaged in spreading conspiracy theories and false information about the security of elections. He said their activities overlapped in multiple states, and he connected them to operatives working in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

"I eventually put them all under surveillance," Apelbaum said. "It revealed it is a network ... always the same crowd."

As with Flynn, many involved in the data breaches and election challenges had counterintelligence or security backgrounds.

They included retired U.S. Army Col. Phil Waldron, who specialized in psychological operations; former National Security Agency employee Jim Penrose; former Army Capt. Seth Keshel; and Russel Ramsland Jr., the leader of a security firm called Allied Security Operations Group, which counts former Central Intelligence Agency, Department of Defense and Secret Service members among its operatives.

State and federal indictments against Trump and members of his inner circle — who are starting to turn on him — closely track Apelbaum's allegations about efforts to breach voting machines and overturn the 2020 election.

MAGA, the campaign slogan and promise by Trump to Make America Great Again, has evolved beyond the former president, Apelbaum said. He described it as a financial and political juggernaut for whoever can harness its power.

Neither Flynn nor Byrne could be reached for comment.

"I don't think it's about Donald Trump anymore," Apelbaum said.

A cybersecurity operative says his company was among a network of cyber firms recruited to attack election results to foment chaos around America's voting system. Political operatives then could exploit the chaos to control the powerful MAGA movement, the operative says.
Plot to control MAGA: Counterintelligence or conspiracy theory?
Apelbaum talks in the language of covert operations. He uses terms associated with Russian intelligence and political warfare for the network behind the voting machine breaches.

They are part of an "active measure," he said, referencing a strategy to "create chaos ... get rid of the truth."

The Russian Federation coined the phrase "active measure" in the 1920s to describe a "combination of propaganda, political pressure, and sometimes covert military activity," according to scholarly research cited by academic publisher IGI Global.

The Kremlin still employs active measures against the U.S. and other countries, according to intelligence analysts.

"You need to let go of the concept of disinformation and switch to the concept of active measure," Apelbaum said. "An active measure encompasses many elements, including disinformation. A well-crafted active measure is living, breathing ... and it spreads. They are pieces of art."

He stopped short of saying Russia is involved in efforts by Trump allies to sow doubts in U.S. elections. But the network is well-organized and well-funded, he said, and its attacks on the electoral process pose a legitimate threat to democracy.

Apelbaum categorized those involved in the election schemes: Flynn and Byrne are orchestrators; former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell and lawyers working for her to facilitate data breaches are operators; and cybersecurity firms such as Cyber Ninjas, hired to obtain and analyze election data, are agents.

The motivations of people involved in an active measure are fluid and not everyone shares the same goal, Apelbaum said. Multiple outcomes are often planned.

Former FBI counterintelligence agent Asha Rangappa said she is skeptical of Apelbaum's claims, calling them "far-fetched."

The USA TODAY Network reached out to Rangappa, who is an assistant dean and senior lecturer at Yale University’s Jackson School of Global Affairs, about Apelbaum's allegation that Trump allies are participants in an "active measure" plot.

She said the term has a specific meaning, and Apelbaum appears to use it loosely in laying out his MAGA subversion strategy.

"That's not really what I would think of as an active measure ... a state-sponsored intelligence operation by the Kremlin," Rangappa said. "The meaning of the term doesn't fit in the context of the way it is being used."

Rangappa, a lawyer, worked out of the New York division of the FBI from 2002-2005 and has taught courses on Russian intelligence and information warfare. She said active measures are usually "open-ended," whereas the scenario Apelbaum outlines appears to have a "very surgical" goal.

State and federal authorities have deeply investigated activities to overturn the 2020 election, she said, and they likely would have discovered interference by foreign intelligence agencies.

"It sounds like a conspiracy theory," Rangappa said, "and I don't want to give credence to it."

White House staffer invited 'active measure' on Hunter Biden laptop
Former Trump White House staffer Garrett Ziegler in 2021 invited Apelbaum to take part in an "active measure" campaign related to Hunter Biden's laptop, according to Apelbaum.

He provided Ziegler's correspondence to the USA TODAY Network as a specific example of the ongoing disinformation campaign.

"Please join me in the active measure business," reads a handwritten message on stationery emblazoned with a large Z and bearing the name Garrett Ziegler in gilded letters. It's signed "the Z-man."

Yaacov Apelbaum of XRVision says former White House aide Garrett Ziegler sent him this card asking him to join him in the "active measure" business. Active measure is a term used by the intelligence community for pervasive disinformation and other political activity.
Apelbaum said he took it as a recruitment offer, which he declined. He called Ziegler a "fraudster."

Ziegler's entreaty, according to Apelbaum, was connected with Hunter Biden's laptop, the contents of which have fueled speculation and lawsuits since it was left at a Delaware computer repair shop in 2019.

Ziegler said in an email Thursday he did write the messages. Apelbaum forged them, he said.

"The message on the front of my stationary ... was written by APELBAUM himself as a troll, and he (being fuindamentally mendacious) did not tell you that," Ziegler said.

Ziegler, 27, was an aide to Peter Navarro, a former Trump assistant and trade adviser. Since leaving the White House in 2021, Ziegler has reinvented himself as a conservative social media firebrand with a single overarching focus: Hunter Biden.

He's amassed a trove of personal and financial data on President Joe Biden's son that he disseminates online. Ziegler published a report through his nonprofit called Marco Polo purportedly containing damning images and information from the laptop.

Hunter Biden sued Ziegler in September, saying he accessed the data without permission and altered its content.

Apelbaum agreed content was altered. In 2020, Delaware computer shop owner John Paul Mac Isaac hired Apelbaum to analyze the laptop's hard drive.

Apelbaum said embarrassing information is on the computer, but added Ziegler is spreading falsehoods about some explicit material on the laptop.

Ziegler initially could not be reached for comment. In his email, Ziegler said his reports on Marco Polo raise doubts about Apelbaum's conduct and background.

Documents show Ziegler sent another note on his personal stationery to Apelbaum in 2021, suggesting he was hurt Apelbaum didn't trust him, according to the documents Apelbaum provided.

XRVision owner Yaacov Apelbaum says he received this message from former White House aide Garrett Ziegler after declining to work with Ziegler on a project involving Hunter Biden's laptop.
"Yaacov: It's unfortunate that I had to find out through (Mac Isaac's) family that you were concerned about my character and intentions," the message reads. "You should make it a habit to go directly to the person you have a problem with, as Scripture says. We could have done good work together on the HB (Hunter Biden) laptop. Call me ... God bless."

Ziegler, in a 2021 social media post, defended the "timeline and chain of custody of the laptop for Marco Polo's academic report."

He accused Apelbaum in the post of being an Israeli or American spy — a "Mossad/CIA operative."

Apelbaum: Trump allies lured company into data breach
There's no evidence to suggest Apelbaum, 60, is a government agent. But he and his associates have worked in the spyware business for years, developing systems for monitoring and tracking people.

Who is Yaacov Apelbaum?Meet the spyware exec who exposed voting machine breach plots

XRVision was founded in Singapore in 2015. It bills itself as a specialist in artificial intelligence technology and markets facial recognition software to governments worldwide.

XRVision's lawsuit gave the public its first glimpse into how Dominion voting machine breaches in at least four swing states were orchestrated and funded.

Plea deals by three members of Trump's legal team in October buttress many of XRVision's claims about the efforts to cast doubt on voting systems.

Powell and Trump lawyers Kenneth Chesebro and Jenna Ellis admitted to a sweeping election conspiracy case in Georgia. Each agreed to testify against Trump in exchange for reduced charges.

Powell admitted she enlisted cyber specialists and local GOP officials to illegally breach voting machines to bolster claims the election was rigged. Chesebro told authorities he plotted with Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman to put forward slates of GOP electors to falsely certify Trump as the winner in certain states. Ellis acknowledged peddling false voting fraud claims to state legislators.

Apelbaum said his company was brought on board by Pennsylvania businessman Bill Bachenberg, who served as co-chair of a committee to reelect Trump and who helped establish the state's alternate slate of Trump electors.

Bachenberg tapped Michigan lawyer Stefanie Lambert to serve as a go-between, setting her up with a $1 million war chest to hire cybersecurity firms, according to XRVision's lawsuit.

"Bachenberg funded these investigations because he sought local and national fame, glory, and esteem for discovering and proving voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election," the lawsuit claims.

Apelbaum said he met Bachenberg and Lambert at a Detroit hotel in 2021. Their first target was data from voting machines in Antirim County, Michigan, which they later code-named "Project Sampson," according to the lawsuit.

Bachenberg and Lambert expanded their investigation in 2022 to include election data obtained from Dominion voting machines in Fulton County, Pennsylvania. Apelbaum said Lambert assured him she was "authorized by a Pennsylvania state court to conduct a forensic and cyber analysis" of the county's elections systems.

Inside Fulton County:Pa. voting system errors 'minuscule,' judge says in tossing Fulton County civil suit

It was a lie, according to the lawsuit. Apelbaum said he wouldn't have done the analysis if he had known the court hadn't approved it.

When XRVision reported Fulton County's voting machines weren't hacked or preconfigured to favor any particular candidates, the suit alleges Lambert became furious. Bachenberg refused to pay.

XRVision is seeking $10 million in damages.

A screenshot of the former website of Sportsmen for Trump shows Allentown, Pa., resident Bill Bachenberg (left). Bachenberg is a defendant in a civil suit that alleges he financed the unauthorized inspections of 2020 voting machines in multiple states.
Bachenberg did not respond to multiple interview requests.

Lambert said in an email on Wednesday she had not been contacted by Apelbaum or his lawyers.

"I have received NO contact (in person, by mail, or email) from counsel for Jacob Applbaum, Yaacov “E”pplebaum, Yaacov Applebaum, or whatever false identity he is currently using," she said in the email. "But I hope that I get served soon. My federal whistleblower is chomping at the bit to get the truth out. I know. I know all of it.”

XRVision's lawyers filed a motion on Monday accusing Lambert of dodging efforts to serve her with a complaint, saying 19 attempts have been made at six locations. The firm asked a judge not to dismiss the lawsuit, according to a report in Law 360.

A Michigan grand jury indicted Lambert in August on multiple charges tied to the breaches, including "undue possession" of a voting machine. She also is an unindicted co-conspirator in the Georgia case. She has pleaded not guilty and maintains both cases were politically motivated.

"There's no way Ms. Lambert did not know she was in an active measure," Apelbaum said. "I warned her ... warned them they did not have election fraud."

Pa. whistleblower Mike Ryan backs data breach claims
A former Bachenberg employee turned whistleblower confirmed Abelbaum's story on the data breaches. But he said the cybersecurity firm's owner likely played a bigger role than the XRVision lawsuit suggests.

Mike Ryan, who was interviewed twice by the FBI in April and September, said he believes Apelbaum helped Bachenberg vet the information coming in from the cybersecurity firms hired by Lambert: "He was the measuring stick."

Ryan said Apelbaum confided details of his involvement in the election plot during six July phone conversations, which lasted more than two hours in total.

Their discussions touched on meetings Apelbaum had with members of Trump's inner circle, his belief that Bachenberg and Lambert were being used as fronts, his disdain for Cyber Ninjas and other cybersecurity firms involved in the breaches, and his fear of Flynn and Byrne.

Apelbaum also repeatedly raised the specter of an active measure, Ryan said.

"He told me he met with Gen. Michael Flynn and Patrick Byrne on at least one occasion," Ryan said. "He told me the people he was scared of most were Flynn and Byrne."

Apelbaum told him Flynn and Byrne were behind the efforts to undermine the election system, Ryan said. He maintained Flynn was pulling Lambert's strings.

Though a Georgia grand jury recommended charging Flynn, neither he nor Byrne has faced indictments related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Ryan said he first became aware of XRVision's relationship with Bachenberg months before the firm was hired to work on the data breaches in 2021. He said he found documents about facial recognition on XRVision letterhead in his boss's storage area.

Apelbaum wouldn't talk about it, Ryan said.

Ryan said he began researching Apelbaum's history, digging deep into his foreign intelligence, political and business ties, which likely brought him in contact with movers and shakers in Trump's orbit. The results surprised him.

"The American people need to understand just who was involved in all of this," Ryan said.

Ryan called Apelbaum's lawsuit a form of legal or "public blackmail" — a gambit to force Bachenberg and Lambert to settle rather than risk exposing themselves in a trial.

Ryan said he came away from the phone calls with admiration for Apelbaum, whom he described as highly intelligent and deliberate.

Apelbaum described Ryan in less favorable terms.

"Mike Ryan is a grifter," Apelbaum said, adding that Ryan offered to work with him on the lawsuit against Bachenberg. "He tried to shake me down."

Ryan denied the claim, saying: "I wish I was that good. No."

Flynn, Byrne stoke far-right fires on 'ReAwaken America' tour
Flynn and Byrne continue to influence right-wing circles on a national circuit with a Christian nationalist roadshow that Flynn helped to launch in 2021.

The ReAwaken America tour, where conspiracy theories and theology mix with warnings about World War III, the collapse of the dollar and the cases against Trump, are a MAGA hit featuring a who's who of TrumpWorld.

Among the dozens of luminaries: Trump's son Eric Trump; MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell; former campaign adviser Roger Stone; conspiracy theorist Jovan Pulitzer; far-right radio show host Alex Jones; Arizona state Sen. Wendy Rogers, R-Flagstaff; and U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz.

The tour's mission, according to its website, is "to uncover instances of election fraud, medical tyranny, religious manipulation, financial fraud by global corporations, political corruption and mainstream media propaganda." It has held 33 sold-out events over the past three years, with additional stops scheduled this winter in Oklahoma and California.

"Believe me," Flynn told a San Marcos, California, crowd last year, "I have organizations on the left that hunt me down. They track me all over this place. They follow me, they write about me, they videotape every move."

"We're going to continue to fight. And we're still at this, we are not going to give up."

Michael Flynn, former President Donald Trump's first national security adviser, interacts with members of the audience after a speech to about 200 people in Venice, Fla., on July 12, 2023.
The emergence of Flynn and Byrne as national speakers comes after marked turns in their own professional careers.

Flynn, who rose to the rank of lieutenant general in the U.S. Army, was an expert in counterterrorism strategy and intelligence assignments. He became director of the Defense Intelligence Agency via nomination from then-President Barack Obama in 2012. He went into private consulting in 2014 before serving a stint as national security adviser for the Trump White House.

The adviser role was short-lived, as Flynn pleaded guilty in 2017 to making false statements to the FBI about conversations he had with a Russian ambassador. The U.S. Justice Department lauded Flynn for his cooperation, and he later was pardoned by Trump.

While Flynn moved through the decades in military and government circles, Byrne became a business icon.

Patrick Byrne told Nebraska forum attendees that China is planning to take over the U.S. by 2030. “I can promise, every nice home in the United States, there’s someone in China who already has a deed to your home,” he said.
Byrne, a Stanford University graduate, turned Overstock.com into a retail juggernaut before resigning and selling his stake for about $90 million as the company slumped in 2019.

He claimed that he had a relationship with Maria Butina, a Russian who served 18 months in U.S. prison before her deportation for conspiring to act as a foreign agent, and that he reported his findings to the "Men in Black," FBI and "Deep State."

Arizona's debunked "audit" of the 2020 vote was financed in part by millions of dollars from Byrne.

Apelbaum also called Flynn and Byrne fraudsters. He said their initial goal was convincing Trump to embrace, endorse and echo the election conspiracy after his 2020 loss — that the vote was rigged against him.

"Which is exactly what he did," Apelbaum said.

A little more than a month later, on Dec. 12, Flynn galvanized Trump supporters during a Million MAGA March outside the U.S. Supreme Court, telling them "there are paths that are still in play."

Flynn and Byrne spoke privately with Trump in the Oval Office during an infamous meeting on Dec. 18, 2020. Byrne told federal investigators it was Ziegler who helped get them into the White House after 6 p.m. on that Friday.

Once there, they urged the president to seize voting machines in an effort to stay in power, according to the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Flynn later testified before the committee and invoked his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination when asked if the violence of the day was necessary. He invoked it again when asked if he believed in the peaceful transition of power.

When Trump was indicted on charges of unlawfully retaining federal documents in June, Flynn called it the "narrative assassination" in a tweet on X.


"Killing somebody by creating a completely false narrative is cleaner, easier and has a lasting effect on others, " Flynn posted. "This is something I have a great deal of experience and expertise on."

Apelbaum said Flynn and Byrne ensnared Trump's followers in a lie and positioned themselves to achieve their operational goal.

"They want to subvert the MAGA movement," he said.

Robert Anglen is an investigative reporter for The Republic. Reach him at robert.anglen@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8694. Follow him on X @robertanglen.

Bruce Siwy is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network's Pennsylvania state Capitol bureau. He can be reached at bsiwy@gannett.com or on X @BruceSiwy.

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