ATLANTA (AP) — A former Republican Occasion official in Georgia who was a faux elector in 2020 misrepresented her function in an alleged breach of voting gear at a rural elections workplace two months after the final presidential election, a courtroom submitting says.
The submitting late Monday is a part of a broader lawsuit difficult the safety of the state’s voting machines that has been drawn right into a separate investigation of former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn his loss in Georgia.
Inside safety digital camera video from the Espresso County elections workplace reveals Cathy Latham, the county Republican Occasion chair on the time, welcomed a pc forensics workforce when it arrived on Jan. 7, 2021, launched the workforce to native election officers and spent almost all day there. She additionally instructed the workforce what to repeat, which turned out to be “nearly each element of the voting system,” the submitting says. The video instantly refutes Latham’s testimony in a sworn deposition and her representations in filings with the courtroom, the doc states.
The submitting is available in response to Latham’s attorneys’ try and quash subpoenas for her private digital gadgets, together with any cellphones, computer systems and storage gadgets.
Robert Cheeley, an lawyer for Latham, didn’t reply to an electronic mail in search of remark. He beforehand stated his consumer doesn’t bear in mind all the small print of that day. However he stated she “wouldn’t and has not knowingly been concerned in any impropriety in any election” and “has not acted improperly or illegally.”
Latham stated in a deposition final month that she moved to Texas over the summer season. In January 2021, she was chair of the Espresso County Republican Occasion and was the state get together caucus chair for greater than 125 of Georgia’s smaller counties. Latham additionally was one in every of 16 Georgia Republicans who signed a certificates in December 2020 falsely stating that Trump had gained the state and declaring that they have been the state’s “duly elected and certified” electors.
Trump in truth misplaced Georgia by almost 12,000 votes to Democrat Joe Biden. The investigation into Trump’s efforts to alter the outcomes features a cellphone name he made to the Georgia secretary of state, a fellow Republican, suggesting he might “discover” simply sufficient votes to make Trump the winner.
Fulton County District Lawyer Fani Willis, a Democrat who’s main that investigation, has notified Latham and the opposite faux electors that they might face prison costs.
The Georgia secretary of state’s workplace has described the copying of knowledge from Espresso County’s election system as an “alleged unauthorized entry” and final month requested the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to get entangled. It’s the newest of a number of suspected breaches of voting system knowledge across the nation tied to Trump allies since his election loss.
Lawyer Sidney Powell and different Trump allies have been concerned in arranging for the copying of the election gear in Espresso County — which is residence to 43,000 folks and voted overwhelmingly for Trump — as a part of a wider effort to entry voting gear in a number of states, in line with paperwork produced in response to subpoenas within the long-running lawsuit over Georgia’s voting machines.
Latham’s “knowledge doubtless will reveal extra particulars in regards to the work carried out and data obtained within the breach, what was carried out with the compromised software program and knowledge, and the folks concerned in planning and orchestrating the breach, which places voters and future elections at monumental threat,” the submitting says.
An exhibit hooked up to the Monday submitting juxtaposes quotes from Latham’s deposition with photographs pulled from safety digital camera footage that seem to instantly contradict her statements.
Latham stated that she went to her job as a highschool trainer and stopped by the election workplace briefly that afternoon. However the video picture reveals her arriving at 11:37 a.m., and time stamps on different photographs present her there all through a lot of the day. She additionally stated she didn’t see particular folks and noticed others solely briefly, however the video photographs present in any other case.
The lawsuit that features the combat over Latham’s private digital gadgets was initially filed a number of years earlier than the 2020 election by particular person voters and the Coalition for Good Governance, an election safety advocacy group. It alleges that Georgia’s touchscreen voting machines are usually not safe and seeks to have them changed by hand-marked paper ballots.
The Monday submitting stated the plaintiffs have recognized a number of paperwork that Latham failed to provide in response to a earlier subpoena. It seeks to have a 3rd get together make a brief forensic copy of her gadgets and seek for responsive paperwork.