“A group of Donald Trump supporters copied a trove of sensitive Georgia election files in Coffee County after the 2020 presidential election, a breach that included data from an election server, voter check-in computers and ballot memory cards, according to documents produced in response to subpoenas.
Trump attorney Sidney Powell helped coordinate the effort, and she was billed over $26,000 by computer experts from Atlanta tech company SullivanStrickler, the records show.
The GBI confirmed Tuesday that it has opened a criminal investigation of the incident on Jan. 7, 2021, when the group flew from Atlanta to South Georgia and were given access by local election officials to equipment that was supposed to be kept secure from outsiders. Computer trespass is a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
The team that visited Georgia included some of the same people who worked with Trump supporters to penetrate election systems in other states, including in Antrim County, Michigan, and Clark County, Nevada. The Washington Post first reported on the documents on Monday, which were produced Friday in response to subpoenas in an ongoing election security lawsuit.”
Paul Maggio, chief operating officer for SullivanStrickler, wrote in an email to Powell that he had gathered election data and records from Coffee County.
“Sidney, everything went smoothly yesterday with the Coffee County collection. Everyone involved was extremely helpful,” Maggio wrote on Jan. 8, 2021. “We are consolidating all of the data collected and will be uploading it to our secure site for access by your team. Hopefully we can take care of payment today.”
Text messages disclosed through the subpoenas indicate that local officials helped the computer experts copy election information, giving them access to the county election office. They included election board member Eric Chaney, former county Election Director Misty Hampton and former county Republican Party Chairwoman Cathy Latham, who also attempted to cast Georgia’s votes for Trump as a fake elector for the Georgia Republican Party on Dec. 14, 2020.
A hard drive produced from Maggio’s subpoena includes dozens of files and folders copied by SullivanStrickler, such as the election management server, memory cards, ballot scanners and ballot images. The secretary of state’s office replaced the county’s server last year.
