U.S. House Oversight Committee Launches Investigation Of Arizona Audit

Published: Wednesday, July 14, 2021 - 4:00pm
Updated: Thursday, July 15, 2021 - 7:41am

Top Democrats serving on the U.S. House Oversight Committee are launching an investigation of the GOP-led review of the 2020 election results from Maricopa County.

In a letter to Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan, hired by state Senate Republicans to lead the audit, Reps. Carolyn Malony of New York and Jamie Raskin of Maryland requested information about his company’s role in the review and recount of nearly 2.1 million ballots cast in the county last November.

That includes documents detailing audit procedures, payment records that would reveal who’s footing the bill for Cyber Ninjas, and any communications with former president Donald Trump and his allies.

“The committee is seeking to determine whether the privately funded audit conducted by your company in Arizona protects the right to vote or is instead an effort to promote baseless conspiracy theories, undermine confidence in America’s elections and reverse the result of a free and fair election for partisan gain,” the representatives wrote.

The investigation comes as the audit nears its end, and follows warnings from local and state election officials in Arizona and national election experts that the process has been mired by bias and ineptitude. 

Cyber Ninjas and other firms hired by Senate President Karen Fann (R-Prescott) have worked since late April, primarily on the hand recount of votes cast for president and U.S. Senate in Arizona’s largest county. 

Officials with the audit say they’re wrapping up work at the Arizona Fairgrounds, where ballots and election equipment subpoenaed by state Senate Republicans have been stored, but it could be weeks, if not longer, before results of the Cyber Ninjas review are publicly available.

Critics say Cyber Ninjas is unqualified to review the 2020 election. As for Logan, the CEO spread conspiracies about the election on social media and authored a document for elected officials that promoted debunked election fraud theories. Logan also appeared in a conspiracy-laden film that claims to show the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump.

Logan and his company have two weeks to respond to the oversight committee’s demands. Spokesmen for Cyber Ninjas and the audit could not immediately be reached for comment.

Politics