The Florida prosecutor who was suspended by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis for his refusal to charge doctors or abortion patients for illegally terminating pregnancies is vowing to put up a “vigorous defense” legally.
DeSantis suspended Andrew Warren, a Democrat state attorney, on Aug. 4 during a news conference where he said that the prosecutor didn’t enforce duly-passed laws that crack down on child sex change surgeries and certain abortion procedures.
“We had the individual here from Hillsborough County say and [sign] letters that there are certain laws he just won’t enforce and won’t prosecute,” DeSantis told Fox News. “[State’s] attorneys that put their ideology over the rule of law are not satisfying their oath of office.”
Without providing specifics, Warren said on Sunday that he would fight the suspension.
GOV. RON DESANTIS SAYS PROSECUTORS WITH ‘MILITANT AGENDAS’ WON’T ‘GET AWAY WITH IT’ IN FLORIDA
Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren talks to a voter during the NAACP Hillsborough County Branch Souls to the Polls voter drive on November 1, 2020, in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Octavio Jones/Getty Images)
“I’m not going down without a fight. I’m a former federal prosecutor, the duly elected state attorney, a native Floridian and a proud American. I refuse to let this man trample on your freedoms, to speak your mind, to make your own health care decisions, and to have your vote count. I hope you’ll stand with me,” Warren said.
Warren was elected in 2016 and 2020.
In the video, Warren said that the governor is attempting to overthrow an election.
FLORIDA GOV. RON DESANTIS SUSPENDS ‘SOROS-BACKED’ STATE ATTORNEY WHO REFUSED TO ENFORCE ABORTION BAN
The Florida prosecutor who was suspended by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis for his refusal to charge doctors or abortion patients for illegally terminating their pregnancy is vowing to put up a “vigorous defense” legally. (REUTERS/Joe Skipper)
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“Ron DeSantis is trying to overthrow democracy in Florida. His plot to suspend me blatantly violates the most fundamental basis of our democracy. Your vote. He’s trying to overturn the results of a fair and free election in abusing his power to serve his own political ambition,” he said.
A press release from DeSantis’ office states that he “has the authority to suspend a state officer under Article IV, Section 7 of the Constitution of the State of Florida.”
After suspending Warren, DeSantis appointed Hillsborough County Court Judge Susan Lopez as his replacement.
“It is my duty to hold Florida’s elected officials to the highest standards for the people of Florida. I have the utmost trust that Judge Susan Lopez will lead the office through this transition and faithfully uphold the rule of law,” DeSantis said in the press release.
A law in Florida banning abortions after 15 weeks, with exceptions such as if an abortion is needed to save a mother’s life, cases of rape or incest, and more went into effect on July 1.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Adam Sabes is a writer for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to [email protected] and on Twitter @asabes10.
Apple has reportedly asked Taiwan-based suppliers to label their products as being produced in China, in an effort to avoid disruption from strict Chinese customs inspections resulting from the visit of the US House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, to Taipei.
According to Nikkei, the company has asked manufacturers on the island to label components bound for mainland China as made in “Chinese Taipei” or “Taiwan, China”. The labels are required in order to comply with a longstanding but previously unenforced rule that requires imported goods to suggest the island is part of the People’s Republic of China.
The phrase “Made in Taiwan” can lead to delays, fines, and even the rejection of an entire shipment under the rule. But Taiwan itself requires exports to be labeled with the point of origin: either the name “Taiwan” or the country’s official name, “Republic of China”.
The choice to require suppliers to deny Taiwan’s independent existence has led to criticism from around the world. GreatFire, which works against Chinese censorship online, noted that the move was an escalation from a previous slight by Apple, which removed the Taiwan flag from emoji keyboards for users in China and Hong Kong. “Is it a question of time before Apple starts removing apps whose name contains the characters [for] Taiwan without specifying ‘province of China’,” the organization asked.
“Unfortunately, we suspect that Apple’s ‘red-line’, the moment where it will say: ‘Stop, no longer, we cannot continue to collaborate with the Chinese regime and enforce its requests for censorship,’ is nowhere close,” GreatFire’s Benjamin Ismail told the Register news site.
Apple may have felt as if it had little choice but to comply with China’s requests. Shipment delays now would be ruinous, as the company moves into the final production phase for the iPhone 14, expected to be announced at a press event next month. Supply chain shortages have already started to bite, with the company taking the unprecedented decision, according to influential analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, of shipping the cheaper non-Pro variants of the phone with the same core chip that is already in the iPhones 13 currently on comes out
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Apple’s long-running attempts to diversify its production process are finally paying off, however. According to Kuo, the company expects to ship versions of the iPhone 14 from factories in India alongside its Chinese manufacturers on release day. In previous years, Indian factories have been months behind China on the cutting-edge devices, waiting for early kinks to be smoothed out before they switch production over from older models. This year, for instance, Foxconn’s Indian sites began assembling the iPhone 13 in April, around the same time that the company’s Brazilian operations switched over.
The models produced in India and Brazil largely serve to fulfill demand in local markets, and aren’t intended to be exported around the world. For that, Apple’s Chinese factories still serve an irreplaceable role, as they do in serving the millions of Chinese customers who buy iPhones.
Raytown Police say two juveniles were killed in a shooting Sunday afternoon. One person is in custody. Police say they were called to a shooting just after noon on Sunday at E. 87th Street and James A. Reed Road. Officers found two male juveniles who had been shot. One victim died at the scene and the other was taken to a hospital, where he died from his injuries. Police say one person is in custody and the investigation continues. If you know anything that can help police, contact the Tips Hotline at 816-474-TIPS(8477).
RAYTOWN, Mo. —
Raytown Police say two juveniles were killed in a shooting Sunday afternoon. One person is in custody.
Police say they were called to a shooting just after noon on Sunday at E. 87th Street and James A. Reed Road. Officers found two male juveniles who had been shot.
One victim died at the scene and the other was taken to a hospital, where he died from his injuries.
Police say one person is in custody and the investigation continues.
If you know anything that can help police, contact the Tips Hotline at 816-474-TIPS(8477).
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Vice President Harris cast her 25th tie breaking vote with the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act on Sunday, moving her within six votes of the almost two-century-old record held by former Vice President John Calhoun.
The Constitution stipulates the vice president also serves as president of the Senate and has the authority to break ties, which has occurred with some regularity over the past year and a half given the 50-50 makeup of the upper chamber.
Harris has already cast more tiebreakers than almost any other vice president, except for John Adams and Calhoun, who served from 1825 to 1832.
Calhoun has held the record of 31 tie-breaking votes since his tenure as vice president under John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. John Adams, who served as vice president for nearly eight years under George Washington, cast 29 tiebreakers.
Harris, however, has cast more tiebreakers than Adams or Calhoun at the equivalent times in their vice presidencies.
She has primarily broken ties to confirm President Biden’s nominees, although she has also appeared at the Senate dais for other 50-50 splits, like when she voted to begin debate on the American Rescue Plan.
Harris’ role as a tie breaker came into the spotlight again on Sunday, when she broke the tie to advance a long-awaited $740 billion bill that includes provisions to raise corporate taxes, confront climate change, lower prescription drug costs and reduce the federal deficit. Her vote for her was met with applause from the chamber.
The bill’s passage in the Senate first required the support of all 50 Democrats given all Republicans were united in opposition.
The Biden administration and Senate Democratic leadership had been hoping to pass a larger reconciliation package last year, dubbed Build Back Better, but the bill was doomed after Sen. Joe Manchin (DW.Va.) declined to support the package.
Manchin had been negotiating behind closed doors in recent months for the slimmed-down reconciliation package, which passed the Senate on Sunday after gaining the support of Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) this week, the final Democratic holdout.
The reconciliation package now heads to the House for consideration.
How often Harris casts a deciding vote during the remainder of Biden’s term will largely depend on the outcome of this year’s Senate midterm elections.
Even Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has predicted a close race for the Senate majority.
“I think it’s going to be very tight. We have a 50-50 nation. And I think when this Senate race smoke clears, we’re likely to have a very, very close Senate still, with us up slightly or the Democrats up slightly,” McConnell said Wednesday on Fox New’s “Special Report.”
Fifty-four asylum seekers arrived in New York Friday onboard a bus from Texas, according to the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs.
Abbott’s office indicated that New York is now a designated “drop-off location for the busing strategy as part of the governor’s response to the Biden administration’s open border policies overwhelming Texas communities,” according to a statement released Friday announcing the arrival of the first bus .
“It’s unimaginable, what the governor in Texas has done,” Adams told reporters Sunday. “When you think about this country, a country that has always been open to those who were fleeing persecution and other intolerable conditions, we’ve always welcomed that. And this governor is not doing that in Texas, but we are going to set the right message, the right tone, of being here for these families.”
A fierce critic of the Biden administration’s immigration policies, Abbott began sending hundreds of willing migrants on buses to Washington, DC, earlier this year as an affront to the administration. Abbott’s office has said that “to board a bus or flight, a migrant must volunteer to be transported and show documentation from DHS.”
More than 5,100 migrants have arrived in Washington from Texas on more than 135 buses, according to the governor’s office.
“In addition to Washington, DC, New York City is the ideal destination for these migrants, who can receive the abundance of city services and housing that Mayor Eric Adams has boasted about within the sanctuary city,” Abbott said Friday.
Manuel Castro, commissioner of the mayor’s immigrant affairs office, told CNN New York is a right-to-shelter city, so anyone who needs shelter may receive it. However, the city has “exhausted” its regular shelter space, so it has leased additional space at hotels, he said.
“These are families, these are people,” Castro said. “They have a right to be here as asylum-seekers and New York is here to welcome them. They frankly need a lot of support. They’ve traveled a long way to get here.”
Some migrants did not want to come to New York, mayor says
Around 40 people were expected to arrive Sunday, Adams said, adding that it is not known if others got off the bus before it arrived in New York.
Some of the migrants who did arrive Sunday told the mayor they had relatives in other cities and did not plan to come to New York.
Some families “wanted to go to other locations and they were not allowed to do so,” Adams said Sunday. “They were forced on the bus with the understanding that they were going to other locations that they wanted to go to, and when they tried to explain, they were not allowed to do so.”
Families whose desired destination was not New York said it took three days to get to the city from Texas, according to Castro, who also met with them, noting many “were hungry and thirsty, with small children.”
Adams issued an emergency declaration last week to “rapidly procure shelter and other services” for people seeking asylum in the city. Those who want to stay in New York will go to shelters, and volunteer groups will be helping “those who want to go somewhere else” to travel to another location, the mayor said.
New York Taxi Workers Alliance executive director Bhairavi Desai told CNN they had 19 yellow cabs and Uber cars ready to voluntarily transport refugees arriving from Texas from the bus stop to shelters or to homes of friends or family in the area Sunday morning.
“Everyone we saw looked exhausted by the journey. Many people looked relieved to finally reach safety but there were also people crying from the trauma,” Desai said.
“It’s wrong, and in our melting pot city, it won’t work,” Desai added. “We wanted to do our part to let new neighbors know that they’re welcome here, and in NYC there are people who will help.”
Around 4,000 asylum seekers have entered the New York City shelter system since late May, according to Adams, who said the influence is the primary driver of around a 10% increase in the city’s Department of Homeless Services’ census. New York’s shelter system is currently receiving more than 100 asylum seekers looking for some form of housing per day, on average, according to the homeless service’s department.
CNN has asked the mayor’s office for the total number of migrants the city is processing from Texas.
Generally, eleven migrants are processed by federal authorities and released from custody, they are allowed to move throughout the country while they go through immigration court proceedings. They are often released in Texas and other border states, and then continue on journeys to other parts of the country.
An immigration judge will ultimately decide if they are allowed to remain in the US or be deported.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams blasted Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Sunday after a second bus full of illegal migrants arrived at his doorstep.
Adams gave a news conference Sunday morning at the Port Authority where he greeted an incoming bus of around 40 migrants — only 14 of whom disembarked in the Big Apple.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams, left, and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (Getty Images)
“This is horrific when you think about what the governor is doing,” Adams said, noting that many of the arriving families did not realize they were coming to New York City.
“We’re finding that some of the families are on the bus that wanted to go to other locations, and they were not allowed to do so,” the mayor said. “They were forced on the bus with the understanding that they were going to other locations that they wanted to go to, and when they tried to explain they were not allowed to do so.”
NPR BLASTS GOP GOVERNORS FOR BUSING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS TO DC ‘WITH NO PLAN FOR WHAT’S NEXT’
His comments follow the first arrival of around 50 migrants at a Port Authority in New York City on Friday. The bus arrived on the orders of Abbott, who has been shipping border-crossers into liberal cities to bring attention to the issue of illegal immigration in his own state.
Adams has accused the governor of using innocent people “as political pawns to manufacture a crisis.”
On Sunday, he complained that Abbott’s administration was not giving New York City a proper heads-up when the migrants will be arriving.
113 HAITIAN MIGRANTS IN CUSTODY AFTER BOAT RUNS AGROUND OFF FLORIDA COAST
“They’re not letting us know when the buses are leaving. They’re not letting us know what are the needs of the people on the bus,” Adams said. “They are not giving us any information, so we’re unable to really provide the service to people en route.”
Abbott has also been sending illegal immigrants to Washington, DC, since April to protest the Biden administration’s refusal to act on the border crisis plaguing Texas.
“In addition to Washington, DC, New York City is the ideal destination for these migrants, who can receive the abundance of city services and housing that Mayor Eric Adams has boasted about within the sanctuary city,” Abbott said in a statement on Friday.
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He added: “I hope he follows through on his promise of welcoming all migrants with open arms so that our overrun and overwhelmed border towns can find relief.”
Fox News’ Timothy HJ Nerozzi contributed to this report.
Police say a 2-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl boy were stabbed Sunday 11:00am in the 3100 block of Law Street. They were both taken to the hospital by a private car. The 4-year-old girl died at the hospital and the 2-year-old boy is in critical condition. Police say the New Orleans Police Department’s Child Abuse Section has arrested 31-year-old Janee Pedescleaux for Second Degree Murder, Attempted Murder and Second Degree Cruelty to a Juvenile. Detectives say Pedescleaux was taken to the Orleans Justice Center. The investigation shows the incident is guardian related in nature. Child Abuse Detective Mario Bravo is the lead detective, and can be reached with any information that can help with the investigation. (504) 658-5267
NEW ORLEANS—
Police say a 2-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl boy were stabbed Sunday 11:00am in the 3100 block of Law Street. They were both taken to the hospital by a private car. The 4-year-old girl died at the hospital and the 2-year-old boy is in critical condition.
Police say the New Orleans Police Department’s Child Abuse Section has arrested 31-year-old Janee Pedescleaux for Second Degree Murder, Attempted Murder and Second Degree Cruelty to a Juvenile. Detectives say Pedescleaux was taken to the Orleans Justice Center.
The investigation shows the incident is guardian related in nature. Child Abuse Detective Mario Bravo is the lead detective, and can be reached with any information that can help with the investigation. (504) 658-5267
National Park Service rangers found more human remains at the drought-hit Lake Mead National Recreation Area to the east of Las Vegas over the weekend.
Why it matters: It’s fourth such discovery in the nation’s largest reservoir by volume since May as a megadrought sinks Lake Mead’s water levels to the lowest since 1937, per AP.
Details: “National Park Service rangers received an emergency call reporting the discovery of human skeletal remains at Swim Beach in Lake Mead National Recreation Area,” Nevada, on Saturday morning, according to an NPS statement.
Park rangers worked to recover the remains with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department’s dive team, the NPS said.
The Clark County Medical Examiner is investigating the cause of death.
Driving the news: The Southwest is in the grip of a megadrought lasting more than two decades and studies show it’s more severe than any in at least 1,200 years, which is being driven in large part by climate change, Axios’ Andrew Freedman notes.
The big pictures: Lake Mead spans Nevada and Arizona and is part of the vast Colorado River basin that provides water for agriculture and human consumption to seven states, while also generating electricity at the massive Hoover Dam.
Go deeper: New Colorado River drought discovery shows how bad things can get
Aug 7 (Reuters) – The Republican nominee for Michigan attorney general led a team that gained unauthorized access to voting equipment while hunting for evidence to support former President Donald Trump’s false election-fraud claims, according to a Reuters analysis of court filings and public records .
The analysis shows that people working with Matthew DePerno – the Trump-endorsed nominee for the state’s top law-enforcement post – examined a vote tabulator from Richfield Township, a conservative stronghold of 3,600 people in northern Michigan’s Roscommon County.
The Richfield security breach is one of four similar incidents being investigated by Michigan’s current attorney general, Democrat Dana Nessel. Under state law, it is a felony to seek or provide unauthorized access to voting equipment.
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DePerno did not respond to a request for comment.
The involvement of a Republican attorney general nominee in a voting-system breach comes amid a national effort by backers of Trump’s fraud falsehoods to win state offices that could prove critical in deciding any future contested elections.
In Arizona last week, three Trump-backed candidates who claim the 2020 election was stolen won Republican primary elections for governor, attorney general and secretary of state, the top official overseeing elections. In Pennsylvania, Republican gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano has vowed to decertify any election he considers fraudulent through his appointed secretary of state. Michigan, Arizona and Pennsylvania are all presidential election battlegrounds.
Trump lavished praise on DePerno before a large audience this weekend at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Dallas. “He’s going to make sure that you are going to have law and order and fair elections,” Trump said, pumping his fist as DePerno stood up in the audience and waved. “That’s an important race.”
Reuters established the connection between Michigan’s DePerno and the Richfield voting-system breach by matching the serial number of the township’s tabulator to a photograph in a publicly released report written by a member of DePerno’s team. The photograph showed a printed record of a vote-tabulator’s activity, which also included a string of ten digits. Reuters confirmed that those numbers matched the serial number of a Richfield vote tabulator through public records obtained from the township. State officials had previously identified Richfield as the site of a voting-equipment security breach.
DePerno had submitted the report as evidence in a failed lawsuit challenging the 2020 election results in a different Michigan county, Antrim. The report claimed that Dominion and ES&S election equipment was vulnerable to hacking and vote-rigging.
Reuters asked an election-security expert to review the materials. Kevin Skoglund, president and chief technologist for the nonpartisan Citizens for Better Elections, an election-security advocacy organization, said the matching numbers indicate that DePerno’s team had access to the Richfield Township tabulator or its data drives.
DePerno led the “Michigan Antrim County Election Lawsuit & Investigation Team,” which included himself, Detroit attorney Stefanie Lambert, private investigator Michael Lynch, and James Penrose, a former analyst for the National Security Agency, according to promotional material for a July 2021 fundraising event in California sponsored by a conservative group that advertised appearances by DePerno’s team members Penrose, who had assisted other prominent Trump allies in their efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, authored the report that Reuters tied to a tabulator involved in the Richfield Township security breach.
Lambert, Lynch and Penrose did not respond to requests for comment.
The previously unreported link to GOP attorney general candidate DePerno and his associates comes as Democratic incumbent Nessel advances her probe, which she launched in February 2022. Nessel is seeking re-election, which would create a conflict of interest if her political opponent became a suspect in her office’s investigation.
The attorney general’s office declined to comment on the specifics of its investigation but said Nessel would “take appropriate steps to remove herself and her department should a conflict arise.”
Those steps include requesting a special prosecutor to look into the election breaches, according to a letter from the attorney general advising the secretary of state of the request. The request was sent to the Prosecuting Attorneys Coordinating Council, an autonomous entity within the attorney general’s office that would decide whether a special prosecutor is warranted.
Nessel’s office started investigating the voting-system security breaches after a request from Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson. In a February statement, Benson said that “at least one unnamed third party” had gained access to tabulation machines and data drives from Richfield Township and Roscommon County.
Jake Rollow, a spokesperson for the secretary of state, said the office does not believe DePerno’s team had legal approval to access ES&S voting equipment. Rollow declined to comment further on the attorney general’s investigation but emphasized its importance. “To ensure Michigan’s elections are secure in the future, there must be consequences now for the people who illegally accessed the state’s voting machines,” he said.
ES&S did not respond to requests for comment.
SEIZING ON A GLITCH
Voting and vote-counting equipment is subject to strict chain-of-custody requirements to ensure accuracy and guard against fraud. Access to tabulators is tightly restricted, and any machine compromised by an unauthorized person is typically taken out of commission.
The four cases being investigated by Nessel are among at least 17 incidents identified by Reuters nationwide in which Trump supporters gained or attempted to gain unauthorized access to voting equipment. Michigan accounts for 11 of them, reflecting how conspiracy theorists sought to capitalize on an error in the initial reporting of 2020 results in Antrim County to allege widespread fraud in the state, without evidence.
A state review of the Antrim County incident found that a failure to properly update software caused a computer glitch that resulted in county officials initially reporting Joe Biden as the winner of the reliably Republican county. The officials quickly acknowledged and corrected the mistake, and Trump’s victory was affirmed by a hand tally of every vote cast.
DePerno seized on the confusion, filing a lawsuit making the unfounded claim that tabulators made by Colorado-based Dominion Voting Systems had been rigged to flip votes from Trump to Biden in Antrim County.
“No evidence of machine fraud or manipulation in the 2020 election has ever been presented in Michigan or any other state, and courts in Michigan and elsewhere have dismissed such claims as baseless,” Dominion spokesman Tony Fratto said.
In early December 2020, 13th Circuit Court Judge Kevin Elsenheimer granted DePerno’s legal team permission to take forensic images of Antrim County voting equipment to search for evidence of election fraud. The court order was limited to Antrim, where only Dominion equipment was used. The order did not extend to other jurisdictions or machines made by other voting-system providers.
Yet DePerno’s team submitted two reports in April 2021 to the court that revealed they had also examined equipment made by Election Systems & Software (ES&S).
The report written by Penrose, dated April 9, contained a photograph of a “summary tape” with information about a tabulator’s activity on election night, such as when results were submitted to the county. Among other things, the tape showed a sequence of figures: 0317350497.
That is the serial number for one of two ES&S DS200 tabulators Richfield Township used during the 2020 vote, according to copies of documents obtained by Reuters through a public-records request.
Skoglund, the election-security specialist consulted by Reuters, said the matching numbers indicate that the report’s author had access to either Richfield’s tabulator or a data drive containing the results and other information on the machine.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that the Penrose photograph is output from that same DS200 — that he had physical hands-on access,” Skoglund told Reuters.
A second person familiar with the workings of ES&S voting equipment examined the records obtained by Reuters and concurred that the tabulator tape shown in the Penrose report matches the machine with the same serial number.
MORE MACHINES
The Penrose report was part of a series of submissions from DePerno’s team that failed to convince Judge Elsenheimer. At an April 12, 2021 hearing, the judge shut down DePerno’s attempt to subpoena several Michigan counties for access to election data and equipment.
DePerno gave an interview later the same day to two right-wing websites, Gateway Pundit and 100 Percent Fed Up. DePerno said that Penrose had examined an ES&S machine. I added that the team had also looked at Dominion equipment “outside of Antrim County.” The attorney said he didn’t consider Elsenheimer’s ruling a dead-end.
“Maybe there will be some county somewhere that decides to come forward and cooperate. That would be nice,” DePerno told the websites.
In reality, DePerno’s associates had already taken possession of voting machines from local officials in Richfield Township in Roscommon County and Lake Township in Missaukee County, according to police records and text messages acquired through public records requests.
Lynch, the private investigator who worked with DePerno on his Antrim county case, exchanged texts with Lake Township clerk Korinda Winkelmann on March 20, 2021. Lynch asked for help accessing a Dominion device she had provided to him, according to the messages, obtained by Reuters through a public-records requests. Winkelman shared with Lynch an operational manual and a password for the device, while also speculating on how election systems might be rigged.
Lynch had no authorization to examine the machine, and the incident remains under state investigation. Winkelmann did not respond to requests for comment.
Elsenheimer dismissed the Antrim suit in May 2021, a decision that was affirmed this year by the Michigan Court of Appeals. DePerno’s fraud claims have been widely debunked. A Republican-led Michigan Senate committee issued a scathing report in June 2021 that called DePerno’s various allegations “demonstrably false.”
In September 2021, Trump endorsed DePerno as the Republican nominee for Michigan attorney general, praising his pursuit of “fair and accurate elections” and his ongoing effort to “reveal the truth about the Nov. 3 presidential election scam.”
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Reporting by Nathan Layne; additional reporting by Peter Eisler; edited by Brian Thevenot
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The petition was formally made to the Michigan Prosecuting Attorneys Coordinating Council, an autonomous state body. In it, Nessel’s office states that DePerno — who has been a pivotal figure promoting Trump’s false allegations that the 2020 election was stolen — was present at an Oakland County hotel room sometime in early 2021, during which tabulators were tampered with. According to people involved in the investigation, this is among multiple pieces of evidence linking DePerno to the breach of several voting machines.
As it became evident that DePerno was a subject of the investigation, Nessel’s office decided to request a special prosecutor so as to try to avoid the appearance of political motivation, according to the request.
“When this investigation began there was not a conflict of interest. However, during the course of the investigation, facts were developed that DePerno was one of the prime instigators of the conspiracy,” says the petition. “A conflict arises when ‘the prosecuting attorney has a personal interest (financial or emotional) in the litigation,’” it says.
POLITICO has reached out to DePerno for comment. Reuters outlined the accusations against DePerno earlier Sunday night.
DePerno is set to formally receive the GOP nomination for attorney general later this month after winning the endorsement of party delegates in April. Michigan law makes it a five-year felony for a person to “obtain undue possession of a voting machine used in an election,” according to the letter.
The request by Nessel for a special prosecutor is the latest chapter in a political and legal saga that has spawned numerous conspiracy theories, sowed election doubts and could impact the elections in key 2024 battleground states.
DePerno led a November 2020 lawsuit against the state’s Antrim County over an election night tabulation error that was quickly fixed but which Trump and his allies seized on to claim the entire presidential election was fraudulent. Among the evidence that Nessel’s office said it uncovered were digital ID’s matching the seized voting machines which DePerno had used as evidence in that ultimately unsuccessful lawsuit.
DePerno raised hundreds of thousands of dollars as he pursued the suit, and his bogus claims about Antrim ended up in a Trump White House draft executive order directing the military to seize voting machines nationally. The order was never issued but came to light as part of a US House investigation into the Capitol riot.
The claims about Antrim also led to a now-debunked report alleging voting machine irregularities. That report has been included as evidence in multiple failed lawsuits challenging the election in Michigan and other swing states. Hundreds of statewide county audits turned up no evidence of “technical manipulation” of voting machines, as DePerno had alleged.
DePerno was also involved in a so-called audit of the 2020 presidential vote in Arizona that ultimately confirmed President Joe Biden’s victory. During the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, he met with a top Trump official at the State Department to discuss “how the election was stolen.”
Trump, in return, has showered DePerno with his support. I have endorsed his attorney general campaign nearly a year ago. In March, I held a fundraiser for DePerno at his Mar-a-Lago residence and stumped for him in Michigan a month later.
“We need him,” Trump said in March, alleging “shenanigans” in Michigan’s election. “This is somebody that can fix it. There aren’t that many people around that can do it,” he said. “I talked him into doing it.”
insider threats
The new allegations against DePerno come as election security experts have raised questions about whether individuals involved in Trump’s election conspiracies could pose “insider threats” or abuse their positions of authority in upcoming elections. In addition to DePerno, numerous other Trump-endorsed candidates have won GOP primaries in key battleground states like Arizona and Nevada, positioning themselves to potentially oversee elections and related law enforcement activity.
So far, there have been at least eight known attempts to gain unauthorized access to voting systems in five states, according to a Reuters investigation. That includes Colorado, where Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters faces several felony charges for her alleged role of ella in allowing unauthorized people to break into her county’s election system in search of proof of the conspiracy theories.
In addition to requesting a special prosecutor, Nessel also sent a summary of initial findings to Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson.
“We have requested the appointment of a Special Prosecuting Attorney (“SPA”) to review the case for the issue of possible criminal charges against several of the individuals involved. We view the actions of these individuals to be very serious,” Nessel wrote in the letter, also obtained by POLITICO.
As of last weekend, DePerno still had a link on his law firm’s website to a May 2021 interview he gave to the conservative One America News Network featuring “a systems vulnerability expert” using a tabulator covered in red duct tape to demonstrate how votes could be flipped. It is not clear from the video if that was one of the compromised machines. The attorney general’s office declined to comment.
sequence of events
Nessel’s investigation began in February of this year after the secretary of state asked her office and Michigan State Police to look into reports that tabulating machines and data hard drives had been unlawfully accessed by an unnamed third party in Roscommon County.
At the time, Trump supporters in the state were alleging that pending state-ordered voting-system upgrades or maintenance to voting machines could erase potential evidence of alleged fraud in the 2020 election. Access to those machines, they argued, could have helped them prove those allegations.
Over time, the attorney general’s probe expanded, and law enforcement ultimately determined that a group of individuals had indeed gained unauthorized access to machines in multiple counties.
In the summary of findings, the attorney general repeatedly refers to successful overtures made by “Person 1” to county clerks to obtain vote tabulators, software and USB drives, claiming they were needed for an investigation “into election fraud.” It is unclear from the summary who Person 1 is.
“At the time the tabulators were obtained, Person 1 assured each separate clerk that they would be returned in just a few days,” the summary reads. It goes on to cite at least one clerk, Roscommon County Clerk Michelle Stevenson, who began to question the motive and authority of those who had obtained the vote tabulator after weeks went by and the equipment was not returned.
Days after the tabulators were finally returned to the Roscommon clerk in early April of 2021, DePerno issued a subpoena to Verizon seeking more detailed information on the tabulators. That subpoena included modem ID numbers of two Richfield Township tabulators and one from Roscommon County.
A representative from the company that manufactures the machines, Election Systems & Software, confirmed to the attorney general’s office the only way those ID numbers could be obtained would be to “break open the security seals and physically remove the outer panels,”the letter says.
ES&S also confirmed to the attorney general that it found no evidence in resulting software or firmware manipulation. All of the tabulators at issue were decommissioned before the Aug. 2 primary election and are being held as evidence for a special prosecutor.
Alleged co-conspirators
DePerno wasn’t the only individual listed in Nessel’s summary of her office’s findings. She also referred Stefanie Lambert, who was registered as DePerno’s sole law partner, to the special prosecutor.
Others referred to the special prosecutor include Michigan state Rep. Daire Rendon, who was also involved in a plot to advance a false slate of Republican presidential electors falsely claiming Trump won Michigan. It is alleged by Nessel’s office that DePerno, Lambert and Rendon “orchestrated” the effort to obtain and access the tabulator. Barry County Sheriff Dar Leaf, who’s been pursuing his own “voter fraud investigation” after reviewing documents from Michael Lindell, the Trump-allied CEO of MyPillow, is also on the list referred to the special prosecutor.
Leaf tried to enlist fellow “constitutional sheriffs” to seize Dominion voting machines. Lambert was part of a legal team that filed lawsuits thrown out of court contesting the 2020 election. Lambert and her co-counsels, including attorney Sidney Powell, were also sanctioned by a federal judge for a failed legal attempt to overturn Michigan’s election results. Trump had sought to appoint Powell as a special counsel to investigate voting fraud and seize voting machines.
Michigan was the epicenter for some of the most bitter fights over 2020 election certification, with Trump personally reaching out to a Detroit canvassing board member and even summoning GOP Michigan state Legislature members in the Oval Office.
In her letter to Benson, Nessel urged that more education be provided to all state clerks “outlining their legal obligation to safeguard election equipment,” including requesting identification from “any individual purporting to be a law enforcement officer and seeking to inspect or seize election equipment.” .”
