The Arizona Senate Republicans reached an agreement Friday with the Maricopa Board of Supervisors (MCBOS) to gain access to the routers via Special Master, former U.S. Rep., Republican John Shadegg. The agreement comes in advance of the publicly broadcast scheduled public hearing to reveal the contents of the forensic audit report. The meeting will be led by Senate President Karen Fann on Friday, Sept. 24, at 1 p.m. PST, per reporting by UncoverDC.
Maricopa County has also dropped its $2.8 claim against the Senate to pay for the cost of replacing potentially compromised voting machines. Both sides are saying it is a win for Maricopa County taxpayers. The Senate has already received the requested ballot envelope images. Specific voter information will be redacted, per court order.
The MCBOS met on Sept. 17 to discuss in detail their action regarding the election subpoenas. Earlier reporting by UncoverDC has stated Arizona's Attorney General Mark Brnovich ordered MCBOS to comply with the Senate-requested subpoenas after months of resistance. He had given the Board until Sept. 27 to comply with his request.
Requested were routers, Splunk logs, hardware keys, and admin passwords. The agreement was approved in a 4:1 vote by the MCBOS. Supervisor Steve Gallardo voted against the agreement. Below are several excerpts from Gallardo's statement:
"This has been a long ten months. I think we're all kind of tired of it. I think the public is tired of it. We aren't dealing with rational people, we aren't. We're dealing with bullies, let it be bullies in the state Senate, outside forces, and even, really unfortunately, an attorney general [that] is wanting to utilize this effort—in my opinion—not only for his own political beliefs but his own political benefit."
"Today we are dealing with irrational people—people [that] will go to any lengths to just prove a point. I've been there at the capitol. I know the types of folks we're dealing with. When I was there, there was a small group. Now there is a larger group that will just do anything they can to try to prove a point and you've seen it not only with subpoenas you're seeing with the letter to the Attorney General."
I hope I'm wrong. I hope that this whole audit and the big lie comes to an end today—but again—we're not dealing with rational people. It's nothing but wishful thinking that it is going to put an end to what many of these senators are wanting to do and that is continuing this charade, continue this big lie, continue to throw out conspiracies and unfounded statements. If anything, I would want the Arizona Senate [to] apologize to every one of our hardworking elections officials that have done everything they can during the 2020 election to put off a very, very successful election not only one—but several elections in [the] middle of [a] pandemic. I would like to see an apology by the Arizona State Senate. I would like to see them to stand up and say we were wrong the elections were safe, secure, and accurate."
The discussion followed a closed executive session and can be seen below starting at the 1:06:25 timestamp:
The agreement stipulates that the Senate will not receive physical custody of the routers. MCBOS was worried there would be issues with the chain of custody if the routers were handed over.
Both parties agreed to the assignment of Special Master Shadegg as an independent coordinator and sole authority in the collection of data from the routers and Splunk logs. He alone can "hire one to three computer technology experts to assist him to responding to the Senate's questions."
The time period for the data being investigated is between Oct. 7, 2020, through Nov. 20, 2020. Security protocols will be in place during the inspection:
- No connectivity to the internet.
- No copying of data to any other device during the inspection.
The County has agreed to the following:
- Waives its claim against the Senate for $2.8 million to replace potentially compromised election equipment.
- Agrees to produce any digital images requested by a July 26, 2021 subpoena no later than Sept. 22, 2021.
- The county must pay for Special Master.
- Senate must notify AG Brnovich of agreement both by email and USPS stating the County has fully agreed with all outstanding subpoenas.
Senator Kelly Townsend says she is unhappy with the compromise. She also says she was not consulted prior to the decision. To safeguard any possible malfeasance on the part of Shadegg with the router data, on her Telegram Channel, she posted the "minimum requirements," including requiring the presence of at least one of the audit team members during the inspection of the routers:
MCBOS Chairman Jack Sellers statement on the county website made it clear that the Senate would never have physical access to the routers:
“This agreement is a step in the right direction to putting this nonsense behind us. The Cyber Ninjas will never be able to touch the routers or access our data. An independent third party can confirm what we've always said: the election equipment was not connected to the internet and no vote switching occurred. And our residents, law enforcement, and courts can all rest assured that their data and equipment are protected.”
Senate President Fann seemed confident and happy about the terms of the agreement. She said Logan and others from the audit team will get all the information they need, including screenshots of data. She also said that they will be able to tell whether data has been deleted.
In the potential case that the Senate feels Shadegg and his team have not been forthcoming, the Senate, Fann explained, can go back to court again and request what they need. She also intimated that foreign interference may be proven in the report but couldn't elaborate.
In a weekend interview with the Gateway Pundit's Jordan Conradson, Fann reiterated that it "was a big win for the Senate" The full interview has been provided below:
"It was a big win for the Senate because not only are we getting all of the data and information we've been looking for for the past four, five, six months—we get that they dropped the 2.3 million. And, as I said, we still have total control. We can subpoena everything we want and remember, when this is all done, we are handing all this over to the Attorney General's office. We will keep our data and we will do whatever we need to pass more laws and to fix the problems we have in election laws. And the Attorney General, Mark Brnovich—he's going to be in charge of doing the investigative side to see where people didn't follow the rules, um, and um, let him do the criminal side of it."
