Stefanie Lambert’s allegations come just days after Matthew DePerno, a Republican lawyer whom Trump sponsored in his unsuccessful race for Michigan attorney general last year, and former GOP state Rep. Daire Rendon were charged in the case.
Last year, Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office named the Trump allies: Lambert, DePerno, and Rendon as having “orchestrated a coordinated plan to gain access to voting tabulators.”
Prosecutors say Trump allies infiltrated voting systems in at least three states while embracing and spreading Trump’s assertion that the 2020 election was stolen.
According to records provided last year by Nessel’s office, investigators there believe five vote tabulators were illegally seized from three counties by the Trump allies and carried to a hotel room. The tabulators were then disassembled and “tests” were run on the apparatus.
Prosecutors stated that the declaration on Thursday “ends the charging decisions in this investigation.”
Investigators have named nine Trump allies in connection with the criminal scheme. Cyber Ninjas founder Doug Logan, Barry County Sheriff Dar Leaf, Ben Cotton, Jeff Lenberg, and James Penrose are among those who have not been charged.
Local clerks who turned over the vote tabulators and others who analyzed the equipment “were deceived by some of the charged defendants (Trump allies),” according to an interview from special prosecutor D.J. Hilson.
According to court filings, Hilson summoned a grand jury in March to determine whether criminal indictments should be filed. According to Hilson, the citizen grand jury “carefully listened to the sworn testimony” and “returned a decision to indict each of the defendants.”
Lambert, whose surname is Lambert Junttila in court documents, stood before a judge Thursday afternoon and pleaded not guilty. According to court records, she is facing four felony accusations, including unauthorized possession of a voting machine and conspiracy.
She did not immediately respond to emails and phone messages seeking comment from her attorney.
Lambert stated on a conservative podcast last week that she had been notified of an indictment but denied any wrongdoing. Hilson, she claimed, was “misrepresenting the law.”
A state judge decided last month that taking a machine without a court order or permission directly from the Secretary of State’s office is a felony punishable by up to five years in jail. This could actually happen to some of Trump allies.
Third Indictment Of The Year
In a 45-page indictment issued on Tuesday, Special Counsel Jack Smith accused Trump and several Trump allies of propagating false claims that the election was rigged, forcing state and federal officials to change the results, and creating bogus slates of electors in an attempt to deprive Biden of electoral votes.
This is Trump’s third indictment of the year.
He has pleaded not guilty to federal accusations of keeping classified papers after leaving office, as well as New York state allegations of falsifying paperwork in connection with hush money payments to a porn star.
Trump could face additional charges in Georgia, where a state prosecutor is looking into his attempts to reverse the election there.