Benson to Jan. 6 Committee: Trump allies had Antrim report while it was under seal

Feb. 5—LANSING — A debunked report from a since dismissed Antrim County lawsuit was under seal at the time it was apparently provided to a Trump-allied attorney and was cited in an unsigned draft of a Trump presidential order, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said in a recent letter to the Jan. 6 Committee.

The Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capital has since July issued subpoenas, requested documents and conducted interviews, some of which detail the pivotal role false claims about Antrim County's election played in a strategy to overturn the 2020 Presidential election.

Documents previously provided to the Committee include a "Strategic Communications Plan" of the "Giuliani Presidential Legal Defense Team," which references debunked claims about Antrim County's voting equipment. That document outlines efforts to leverage a human error in Antrim County's ballot counting as part of an effort to put pressure on Republican senators in six states — including Michigan — to overturn the election result.

And a draft presidential order dated Dec. 16, 2020 cited "the forensic report of the Antrim County, Michigan voting machines" as probable cause of foreign interference. If issued, that order would have directed the Secretary of Defense to seize U.S. voting machines.

The report cited in the draft order was authored in the fall of 2020, by staff with Dallas-based Allied Security Operations Group, on behalf of Antrim County resident William Bailey, who on Nov. 23, 2020 filed suit, accusing the county of voter fraud.

The lawsuit was later dismissed by 13th Circuit Court Judge Kevin Elsenheimer, Bailey's attorney Matthew DePerno appealed and the Michigan Court of Appeals has yet to weigh in.

Benson's letter states this same debunked Antrim County report was cited by attorney Sidney Powell in a Dec. 13, 2020 letter to all nine justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, in an effort to add it to the court record as part of a since-dismissed federal lawsuit against Michigan elected officials.

The records appear to show Trump allies had access to the report on Dec. 13, 2020, a day before Elsenheimer issued an order allowing release of the report to the public.

This discrepancy was highlighted by Benson, in her letter to Jan. 6 Committee Chairman Bennie G. Thompson, which cc'ed U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland.

"Further, on Dec 13, 2020, although the report was ordered under seal by the judge, it was apparently provided to the former president's former attorney Sidney Powell, despite the fact that it was not allowed by the judge to be released until Dec. 14," Benson said.

A Michigan SOS spokesperson, when asked for details of who may have provided the report to Powell and others in advance of its public release, said the role of Benson's office was to gather and submit election-related information, not to investigate.

"We are not an investigative body," Tracy Wimmer said in an email. "We just witnessed firsthand the attempts to nullify the votes of 5.5 million Michigan voters. Our responsibility is to submit the receipts of what we witnessed to the proper investigative bodies."

Benson said in her letter to the committee unanswered questions linger regarding the larger purpose of the report.

"What remains unclear is the extent to which the authors of the false report drafted it to lay the groundwork for the former president's executive order, and if they did so at his direction or the direction of his campaign," Benson said.

A spokesperson for Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said her office had no information to share; Elsenheimer declined comment, citing the ongoing nature of the case and judicial policies regarding media inquiries. DePerno did not respond to a request for comment.

This is not the first time state officials have raised questions about court-sealed information from the Antrim County report being disseminated improperly.

Elsenheimer's Dec. 14, 2020 court order shows the judge ruled proprietary information and any other information or images gathered from a Dec. 6, 2020 forensic exam of the county's voting equipment not included in the ASOG report remained under seal.

Then on Jan. 11, 2021, Elsenheimer ruled certain "individual images" contained in the report be placed under a protective order.

"Again, Mr. DePerno's experts should have the opportunity to review those materials, as should the experts of any other entity — be it the intervenor, or the county, or any of the other defendants in this case," Elsenheimer said, according to court transcripts. "But mass distribution of that information is not something that the Court is countenancing at this time."

But in October 2021, Benson said she'd received information showing at least one of these court-protected images from Antrim County's voting equipment were shared during a "cyber symposium" hosted by Trump supporter and My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell.

Benson, who'd previously petitioned the court to be added to Bailey's lawsuit as a named defendant, said in court filings Col. James P. Waldron and Douglas Frank, two of Bailey's expert witnesses, appeared as speakers at the symposium and that Waldron told attendees "the Antrim information" would be available and invited them to view the images.

Court filings show DePerno was advised of the distribution of the Antrim County images by Michigan Assistant Attorney General Erik A. Grill, who represents SOS's office in the lawsuit.

"We have received information that during an event earlier this week, Mike Lindell publicly displayed or distributed images of the Antrim County EMS software," Grill said in an email. "Those images are under protective order. Neither you or your team are permitted to display or use those images."

The same court filing shows DePerno answered Grill, also by email, stating as soon as he heard, he sent Lindell a "cease and desist demand" stating neither Lindell nor his team had permission to display the images.

Waldron on Dec. 16 received a subpoena from the Jan. 6 Committee, records show, compelling him to produce documents and appear for a deposition.

"The Select Committee's investigation and public reports have revealed credible evidence that you have information concerning attempts to disrupt or delay the certification of the 2020 election results," a Dec. 16, 2021 letter to Waldron states. "According to public reporting, you claim to have visited the White House on multiple occasions after the election, spoken to Mark Meadows 'maybe 8 to 10 times,' and briefed several members of Congress on election fraud theories."

Meadows is a former White House chief of staff, serving in 2020 during the Trump administration. Meadows was subpoenaed in September by the Jan. 6 Committee, members of whom voted last month to hold him in contempt of Congress for failing to appear.

Waldron did not return a request for comment; the Select Committee has subpoenaed more than 400 people, collected hundreds of thousands of documents though has yet to make all the documents public.