Maricopa County officials refused Monday to turn over routers sought by two top Republicans in the Arizona Senate in the latest subpoenas related to the contentious 2020 election audit and unprecedented review of former President Donald Trump’s loss in Arizona’s largest county.
The subpoenas issued on July 26 by Senate President Karen Fann and Judiciary Committee Chairman Warren Petersen demanded that representatives for the county Board of Supervisors and Dominion Voting Systems produce the materials by Monday afternoon at the state Capitol.
The subpoenas sought the network routers and traffic logs, envelopes from all mail-in ballots or images of them, certain voter registration records with change histories, and records related to alleged security breaches.
Cyber Ninjas and the other contractors hired to review the Phoenix-area general election said they needed the requested materials to complete their final audit report.
Dominion makes the election equipment leased by Maricopa County and has been the target of false conspiracy theories suggesting its machines were tainted by foreign interference.
Dominion officials also rejected the subpoena Monday, calling it “illegal and unenforceable.”
“Specifically, providing these routers puts sensitive, confidential data belonging to Maricopa County citizens — including Social Security numbers and protected health information — at risk,” wrote Thomas Liddy, civil division chief for the County Attorney’s Office.
He added: “Further, the Maricopa County Sheriff has explained that the production of the routers would render MCSO internal law enforcement communication infrastructure extremely vulnerable to hackers.”
County officials have said the vote review is being run by incompetent grifters and that they have already provided everything needed for the review of the 2020 vote count.
Fann first issued a subpoena late last year as Trump and his allies were looking for materials to support their false claims of election irregularities before President Joe Biden’s victory was formally certified in January.
The subpoena was reissued early this year, and after a judge ruled it was valid, Maricopa County turned over 2.1 million ballots, hundreds of counting machines, and terabytes worth of data.
The materials were given to contractors hired by Fann for a sweeping audit of the election, which Trump narrowly lost in Arizona.
Fann has said her goal is not to overturn the 2020 election but to determine whether changes to state law are needed going forward.
The audit is being led by an inexperienced firm, Cyber Ninjas, headed by a Trump supporter who has promoted conspiracy theories about the election. It’s become an obsession for many Trump supporters who hope it will turn up evidence supporting claims of fraud.
Fann doesn’t have the power on her own to hold county officials in contempt if they ignore the demand for documents.
The Senate is not in session, and Fann lacks the 16 votes she’d need to hold officials in contempt, which would open the door for their arrests.
Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
