Lawyer charged with illegally transmitting Michigan data after 2020 election
Criminal Justice
Lawyer charged with illegally transmitting Michigan data after 2020 election
May 9, 2024, 2:53 pm CDT
Voters cast their ballots for early voting on Nov. 5, 2018. (Photo by Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)
A lawyer who pressed election fraud claims after the 2020 presidential election is facing new criminal charges alleging that she and a township clerk allowed an unauthorized computer examiner to access voter data that included nonpublic information.
Lawyer Stefanie Lambert of Detroit, who is also known as Stefanie Lynn Junttila, is accused of illegally transmitting data from an electronic poll book at the direction of the township clerk, according to a May 8 press release by Democratic Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel.
Lambert was charged with using a computer to commit a crime, unauthorized access of a computer, and conspiracy to commit the offense of unauthorized computer access.
An electronic poll book typically includes information about eligible voters in specific precincts, the Detroit News explains in its story on the charges.
A lawyer for Lambert, Dan Hartman, told Bridge Michigan that there was no crime committed.
“Her efforts to identify and bring powerful entities to account for the violations of election law has created an enterprise that has acted overtly to conceal their crimes,” Hartman said. “I have spoken to Stefanie who remains steadfast in her efforts to bring transparency to the people’s election data, processes and procedures.”
Lambert has also been charged in Oakland County, Michigan, with participating in a conspiracy to obtain and access voting machines. She was arrested in Washington, D.C., in March after failing to appear for a hearing in that criminal case. She was in D.C. representing Patrick Byrne, the former CEO of Overstock, an online retailer, in a Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit accusing him of defamation.
Lambert is accused in the Dominion case of leaking the company’s documents to law enforcement despite a protective order.
Lambert was also initially sanctioned, along with several other lawyers, for participating in a suit to overturn Michigan election results that was based on “speculation, conjecture and unwarranted suspicion.”
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at Cincinnati reversed the sanction against Lambert, however, because the judge who imposed it had not made sufficient findings to show that she was involved in drafting or advocating frivolous claims, Courthouse News Service reported in June 2023.
Also charged with Lambert in the new criminal case is Stephanie Scott, a former Adams Township clerk, who is accused of refusing to present the township voting tabulator to an authorized vendor for maintenance and testing. The machine was eventually seized pursuant to a warrant obtained by the Michigan State Police.
The charges against Scott are using a computer to commit a crime, unauthorized access to a computer, conspiracy to commit unauthorized access to a computer, misconduct in office, concealing or withholding a voting machine, and disobeying a lawful instruction or order of the secretary of state as chief election officer.
Scott previously told Bridge Michigan that she kept the voting machine because she didn’t trust it and wanted to preserve data on it.
