Pro-Trump lawyer charged in conspiracy to seize Michigan voting machines after 2020 election
By Zachary Cohen and Marshall Cohen, CNN
(CNN) — A pro-Trump lawyer who allegedly took part in a conspiracy to seize and access voting machines in Michigan after the 2020 election is now facing four state-level criminal charges, according to court documents reviewed by CNN.
Stefanie Lambert Junttila is the third – and expected to be the final – individual charged in the investigation that revolves around attempts by Donald Trump supporters to breach voting machines throughout Michigan, as part of their ham-handed attempts to prove the former president had actually carried the state in 2020.
Earlier this week, CNN reported that two prominent republicans in Michigan – a Trump-backed candidate who lost his state attorney general bid and a former state lawmaker – are facing criminal charges in connection with the voting machine plot.
The special prosecutor overseeing the case, D.J. Hilson, said in a statement Thursday that other individuals previously named in the investigation – including “computer experts” who requested to analyze the voting machines, will not be charged as they were “deceived” by defendants into thinking their actions were legal.
Hilson told CNN that includes Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan and analyst Jeffrey Lenberg, both of whom were also involved in the voting system breach in Coffee County, Georgia.
Lambert is among a loose collection of Trump supporters across the country who tried to get access to voting machines while hunting for fraud in Michigan, Georgia and other key battleground states. They took action after some of their allies unsuccessfully urged Trump in December 2020 to sign an executive order directing the military to seize voting machines.
Trump and other prominent Michigan Republican figures repeatedly peddled baseless conspiracy theories about massive fraud in Detroit and supposedly rigged voting machines that manipulated the results in rural Michigan counties.
Lambert also was involved in meritless lawsuits seeking to overturn the 2020 election, including an unsuccessful lawsuit alleging “massive” voter fraud. She has close ties to former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell. CNN has identified Powell as one of the six unnamed co-conspirators described – but not charged – in special counsel Jack Smith’s separate, federal indictment of Trump over efforts to overturn the election.
Lambert was arraigned Thursday afternoon on the state charges, according to a statement from the special prosecutor overseeing the case. She faces multiple charges related to unlawful possession of voting machines and conspiracy to access voting machines, court documents show.
In a statement to CNN, Lambert’s attorney Michael Smith accused D.J. Hilson, the special prosecutor in Muskegon County, of ignoring “applicable law” and said he was pursuing a “malicious prosecution.”
“My client was a zealous advocate for her clients, and she did not violate the law,” Smith said in the statement.
Matthew DePerno, the failed GOP candidate for Michigan attorney general, and former GOP state Rep. Daire Rendon were both arraigned Tuesday on multiple charges related to unlawful possession of voting machines and conspiracy to access voting machines in the state. Both pleaded not guilty.
The inquiry was originally led by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, an elected Democrat who has strongly and publicly condemned the GOP efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in the Wolverine State. Nessel handed off the investigation last year to a special prosecutor because of a potential conflict of interest regarding one of the targets of the probe.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
The-CNN-Wire
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