A Michigan judge effectively killed a lawsuit claiming there was fraud in Antrim County’s 2020 election results.
The decision to grant no additional relief by 13th Circuit Court Judge Kevin Elsenheimer, made during a Zoom hearing, marks another loss for former President Donald Trump and his allies, who claim votes were intentionally switched in the November contest but have been roundly defeated in court cases around the country.
Attorney Matthew DePerno and his client, Antrim County resident William Bailey, initially sued over a local marijuana retailer proposal but have expanded it since then, including seeking an audit of the 2020 contest. But the judge said an audit appears to have already been done so “pursuant to authority.” The plaintiffs could still appeal, and the judge said it is his understanding that all other matters have been put on hold for the time being.
Early issues with the presidential election results drew national attention to the case in the Republican-leaning county in northern Michigan of about 23,000 residents.
MICHIGAN ATTORNEY CLAIMS ‘EXPLOSIVE’ EVIDENCE FOUND IN ANTRIM COUNTY 2020 ELECTION FRAUD CASE
The results initially showed President Joe Biden winning the race, but tabulation errors were quickly discovered, and once rectified, Trump was shown to be the victor. State and county officials have blamed human error (a failure to update software across the county) for the mishap, but Bailey and DePerno contend Dominion Voting Systems machines could have been used to manipulate the election in a lawsuit that initially concerned a local marijuana retailer proposal. The defendants and the voting machine company denied these claims.
DePerno and Bailey had been pressing for their own audit of the contest, but the defendants, including the Antrim County clerk Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, argued that such an audit did take place and filed a joint motion for summary disposition, claiming, in part, that the court already addressed what the plaintiffs sought in their original complaint. The judge said Michigan law gives the secretary of state the right to perform audits and determined that the case was moot.
“By deciding this motion, the court is not saying that there were no problems in the way that Antrim County conducting its November 2020 elections,” Elsenheimer said. “The clerk has admitted that there were challenges and problems in the elections, although the hand count ultimately of the presidential election showed the results were largely consistent with the canvas totals that were entered by the state and reported by the county. Nor am I saying that the processing of election data here wasn’t corrupted or corruptible. I don’t have the facts to make that determination.”
He then referred to the recent Colonial Pipeline hack that caused gasoline shortages in swaths of the country.
“The plaintiff’s reports and news of the day, including a computer hack recently of a main petro fuel pipeline on the East Coast might well suggest that this is something that policymakers should be looking into in the future. If election results were to be held for ransom in the future, one could only imagine what would happen,” he said.
“I am saying that as pled, the plaintiffs’s request for an audit is not available. Anticipating the possibility of appeal, this court will take all pending motions under advisement,” he added.
DePerno did not return the Washington Examiner’s request for comment on an appeal and any other next steps. He did react on Twitter, saying: “Apparently the SOS can conduct the audit in any way she determines even if she is actively part of the fraud.”
During an appearance with Bailey on Monday, DePerno told supporters that “explosive” evidence showed there were multiple ways there could have been issues with ballot tabulation and called on state legislators to conduct a statewide audit of the election as an alternative to the court system route.
Benson celebrated the judge’s ruling Tuesday in a statement, which noted that Elsenheimer is a former Republican state legislator.
“The dismissal of the last of the lawsuits attempting to undermine democracy in furtherance of the Big Lie affirms that despite intense scrutiny, and an unprecedented misinformation campaign, the 2020 election was fair and secure, and the results accurately reflect the will of the voters,” she said.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said the ruling in Antrim County “should be the nail in the coffin for any remaining conspiracy theories surrounding the outcome of the Nov. 3 general election.”
A December hand recount in Antrim County found a deviation of just a dozen votes from the first tabulation, with 9,759 votes won by Trump and 5,959 going to Biden, who won the state of Michigan and its 16 Electoral College votes by roughly 150,000 ballots. And, as the defense argued, a statewide audit affirmed the results in February.
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“The December hand tally of all ballots cast for president in Antrim County was carried out by bipartisan officials, and it showed that the county’s vote-counting machines were extremely accurate. Any suggestion to the contrary is false and should be considered misinformation being used to undermine all American citizens’ faith in our collective democracy,” Jake Rollow, a spokesman for the Michigan secretary of state’s office, previously told the Washington Examiner.
In an early victory, the judge allowed Bailey and DePerno to pick Allied Security Operations Group, a Dallas-based cybersecurity firm, to perform a “forensic audit” of the Dominion machines in the county on Dec. 6. In a report, ASOG concluded that Dominion machines were “intentionally and purposefully designed with inherent errors to create systemic fraud and influence election results.”
This effort prompted Benson to warn voters to be wary of a “misinformation campaign” by “individuals with no apparent technical expertise in election technology,” and Dominion CEO John Poulos blasted the ASOG report in a hearing with Michigan lawmakers, testifying that the findings were “categorically false” and released by a “biased group.” His company, a target of fraud claims, has filed multiple defamation lawsuits since the November election.
J. Alex Halderman, a professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Michigan, wrote a report released by the Michigan Department of State that argued human error led to early tabulation errors in Antrim County. While Halderman acknowledged vulnerabilities in the election technology, he stressed that “there is no evidence that any of these problems was ever exploited in Antrim County.”
Elsenheimer recently allowed DePerno to proceed with an “expert witness” list and 30 days for testimony to rebut Halderman’s report. Benson, a Democrat, also asked the judge last week to excuse her from a May 24 deposition.
Former President Donald Trump had cheered on the lawsuit, along with the election audits in Maricopa County, Arizona, and Windham, New Hampshire.
“The major Michigan Election Fraud case has just filed a bombshell pleading claiming votes were intentionally switched from President Trump to Joe Biden,” he said in a recent statement shared by his Save America PAC.
“The number of votes is MASSIVE and determinative. This will prove true in numerous other States. All Republicans must UNIFY and not let this happen. If a thief robs a jewelry store of all of its diamonds (the 2020 Presidential Election), the diamonds must be returned. The Fake News media refuses to cover the greatest Election Fraud in the history of our Country. They have lost all credibility, but ultimately, they will have no choice!” the former president said.
