Judge backs penalties against county in voting machine case - Danbury News Times

She recommended that the justices find that the county, based connected the actions of Republican Commissioners Stuart Ulsh and Randy Bunch, “engaged successful vexatious, obdurate, and atrocious religion conduct” successful their suit against the Department of State implicit whether a 2021 inspection by different extracurricular radical meant the machines could nary longer beryllium used.

Cohn Jubelirer, an elected Republican, recommended that the region beryllium ordered to wage immoderate of the state's ineligible fees and that the Dominion Voting Systems Inc. machines successful question beryllium turned implicit to a 3rd enactment for safekeeping astatine the county's expense.

Messages seeking remark were near Friday and Saturday for Pottstown lawyer Thomas J. Carroll, who represents Fulton County, Ulsh and Bunch. Messages were near Saturday for Ulsh, and Bunch did not reply his phone.

The justice noted that during a three-day proceeding earlier this month, Ulsh and Bunch invoked their Fifth Amendment close against self-incrimination “in effect to the immense bulk of questions asked of them connected nonstop examination.”

Cohn Jubelirer's study was commissioned by the authorities Supreme Court aft lawyers for acting Secretary of State Leigh Chapman sought a contempt order. The petition for the bid was based connected Bunch and Ulsh's disclosure successful abstracted litigation successful September that Speckin Forensics LLC of Lansing, Michigan, had copied hard drives successful July from Democracy Suite 5.5A voting machines that Fulton County had rented from Dominion.

The Department of State ordered the region to halt utilizing its rented Dominion machines aft Bunch and Ulsh allowed 1 group, Wake TSI, entree to them arsenic portion of an effort to assistance Trump's failed efforts to reverse his defeat. Fulton County, Bunch and Ulsh sued to situation the state's bid that the machines could not beryllium utilized successful aboriginal elections, and Fulton County has since been utilizing different machines.

“All concatenation of custody has been broken, and it is present intolerable to find what the authorities of the Dominion Voting Equipment was instantly aft the Wake TSI Inspection,” Cohn Jubelirer wrote. “That is, the Speckin Inspection rendered the voting instrumentality unreliable arsenic grounds of what Wake TSI did, and it is intolerable to reverse that effect.”

The Department of State had told counties they were not allowed to supply others specified entree to voting machines. Ulsh and Bunch were moments distant from permitting a 3rd group, Envoy Sage LLC, to inspect the machines successful January erstwhile the authorities Supreme Court enactment that connected hold. The inspection planned successful January was to impact computers, physics canvass books, ballot scanners and perchance more.

Litigation implicit the Envoy Sage inspection and the state’s bid prohibiting extracurricular entree was planned for Supreme Court oral statement past period earlier the Department of State notified the justices of the Speckin inspection and sought penalties. The precocious tribunal took the substance disconnected its calendar and asked Cohn Jubelirer to investigate.

Cohn Jubelirer said the justices should not assistance Chapman's petition that they disregard the suit that Fulton County, Ulsh and Bunch person pending against her. Instead, Cohn Jubelirer said that during the ongoing litigation immoderate facts related to the instrumentality inspections should beryllium “conclusively established” successful Chapman's favor.

Rural Fulton County is overwhelmingly Republican and gave Trump much than 85% of its ballot successful 2020.