{"id":6036,"date":"2022-10-28T10:48:07","date_gmt":"2022-10-28T10:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/?p=6036"},"modified":"2022-10-29T12:50:44","modified_gmt":"2022-10-29T12:50:44","slug":"federal-judge-threatens-true-the-vote-with-jail-time-for-contempt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/?p=6036","title":{"rendered":"Federal Judge Threatens True The Vote With Jail Time For Contempt"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-videopress\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"VideoPress Video Player\" aria-label=\"VideoPress Video Player\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/videopress.com\/embed\/du5XmXfo?cover=1&amp;posterUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fvideos.files.wordpress.com%2Fdu5XmXfo%2F100_20221028_090641-1_mp4.scrubthumb-10.jpg&amp;preloadContent=metadata&amp;useAverageColor=1&amp;hd=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen data-resize-to-parent=\"true\" allow=\"clipboard-write; presentation\"><\/iframe><script src='https:\/\/v0.wordpress.com\/js\/next\/videopress-iframe.js?m=1790791280'><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-size: revert; color: initial; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;\">October 28, 2022 at 06:46AM <\/span><em><strong>Federal judge holds tight-lipped chiefs of election denial group in contempt<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ihx2WYfXGUU\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p>True the Vote&#8217;s principals said they could not divulge the name of an FBI informant involved in a hack of poll workers&#8217; personal data. A judge said they had no choice.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<figure><picture><source srcset=\"https:\/\/www.courthousenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/ohio-voter-stickers-1880x1254.jpg.webp\" type=\"image\/webp\" \/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/www.courthousenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/ohio-voter-stickers-1880x1254.jpg\" type=\"image\/jpeg\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.courthousenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/ohio-voter-stickers-1880x1254.jpg?resize=1880%2C1254&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"1880\" height=\"1254\" data-src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.courthousenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/ohio-voter-stickers-1880x1254.jpg?resize=1880%2C1254&#038;ssl=1\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/> <\/picture>\n<figcaption>A bowl of stickers is set out for voters in Steubenville, Ohio, in March 2020. (AP Photo\/Gene J. Puskar, File)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n<div>\n<p>HOUSTON (CN) \u2014 Leaders of the election-monitoring group True the Vote have until Monday morning to identify a man privy to the download of personal information of 1.8 million U.S. poll workers from a software company\u2019s server, or they will be detained for contempt, a federal judge warned Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>True the Vote, its founder Catherine Engelbrecht and contractor and former board member Gregg Phillips are leading proponents of the conspiracy theory voting fraud cost Donald Trump the 2020 presidential election.<\/p>\n<p>With U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt threatening them with fines and arrest in a contempt hearing Thursday, they took the witness stand and alleged they were working as confidential informants for the FBI from 2021 to May of this year, helping with an investigation of Konnech Inc., a Michigan-based company that sells software to help manage election equipment and poll workers.<\/p>\n<p>The hearing centered on a meeting in a Dallas hotel room in early 2021.<\/p>\n<p>Phillips testified a friend of his named Mike Hasson summoned him to the hotel and after they rolled up towels and placed them under the door, Hasson plugged his laptop into a TV and showed him data Konnech maintained for U.S. poll workers \u2014including Social Security numbers, phone numbers, email addresses and banking information \u2014 that Hasson said he had obtained by accessing a password-protected server in China.<\/p>\n<p>According to a defamation and computer fraud <a href=\"https:\/\/www.courthousenews.com\/election-logistics-firm-sues-perpetrators-of-voter-fraud-smear-campaign\/\">lawsuit<\/a> Konnech filed on Sept. 12 in Houston federal court, its Chinese-American CEO and founder Eugene Yu and his family had to leave their home due to threats from True the Vote supporters after Phillips and Engelbrecht spread lies at events and on podcasts the company is a vehicle of the Chinese Community Party to manipulate U.S. elections.<\/p>\n<p>The same day Konnech sued, Hoyt issued a temporary restraining order, directing Phillips and Engelbrecht to identify each person involved in taking Konnech\u2019s data.<\/p>\n<p>The saga took an unexpected twist Oct. 4 when Yu was arrested by local police in Michigan working with investigators from the Los Angeles County District Attorney\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n<p>District Attorney George Gasc\u00f3n said Konnech has a contract with LA County that mandates it keep election worker information on secure servers in the United States, and a probe by his office had found probable Konnech was storing the data on servers in China.<\/p>\n<p>Two days later, Hoyt convened a contempt hearing at the behest of Konnech\u2019s attorneys, Dean Pamphilis and Nathan Richardson of Benson Kasowitz Torres, because Phillips\u2019 and Engelbrecht\u2019s attorneys were refusing to identify who had accessed Konnech\u2019s data.<\/p>\n<p>They said it would jeopardize national security and was an \u201cFBI matter.\u201d But under pressure from Judge Hoyt, they <a href=\"https:\/\/www.courthousenews.com\/texas-elections-monitoring-group-forced-to-name-source-of-hacked-poll-worker-data\/\">named<\/a> Hasson in open court at the Oct. 6 hearing, despite their concerns it would somehow endanger Hasson.<\/p>\n<p>A few days before Yu\u2019s Oct. 14 arraignment in Los Angeles County on charges of grand theft by embezzlement of public funds and conspiracy to embezzle public funds, which together carry a maximum sentence of eight years in prison, True the Vote\u2019s attorneys revealed Phillips had testified before the grand jury that indicted Yu.<\/p>\n<p>Back in Houston, Hoyt scheduled another contempt hearing because True the Vote\u2019s counsel still had not complied with the TRO and named everyone who had been in that Dallas hotel room or seen the filched data.<\/p>\n<p>True the Vote\u2019s initial counsel withdrew from the case, and it hired new lawyers, John Kiyonga of Alexandria, Virginia and Michael Wynne with Gregor Cassidy Wynne of Houston, to represent them at Thursday\u2019s hearing.<\/p>\n<p>Wynne started off trying to appease Judge Hoyt and avoid any contempt order against his clients with a sworn affidavit from Phillips, stating the only people who have seen Konnech\u2019s stolen data besides Hasson and Phillips were two Texas-based FBI agents to whom Hasson had given the data.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p>Pamphilis, Konnech\u2019s attorney, complained that he had spent the last 45 days \u201cchasing these guys around,\u201d trying to get information they insisted they couldn\u2019t give up due to national security concerns and had incurred $130,000 in attorney\u2019s fees.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want them to put on the record today all info required by the [TRO]. And if not be fined a specific amount or confined to jail until they do comply,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Judge Hoyt agreed. \u201cA motion for contempt can\u2019t be answered with an affidavit,\u201d he said. \u201cIt has to be addressed with testimony or suffer the consequences. Failing to testify can lead to them [Phillips and Engelbrecht] being incarcerated. \u2026 This isn\u2019t criminal contempt, it\u2019s coercive contempt. They hold the key to the jailhouse. They can get out if they testify.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After Phillips, Engelbrecht and their entourage of attorneys and bodyguards retired to a side room for a conference, they returned to the courtroom and Phillips took the stand.<\/p>\n<p>Phillips, 62, in a blue suit jacket and sporting a long salt-and-pepper beard said, \u201cI\u2019m a contractor for True the Vote and was on its board from 2014 to 2017.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Phillips testified he does not know how Hasson accessed Konnech\u2019s data. He also revealed the involvement of a mystery man: He said a third FBI confidential informant had been in the hotel room with him and Hasson, as he considered both himself and Hasson to also be CIs for the agency, helping it with voter fraud investigations.<\/p>\n<p>On cross-examination, Pamphilis tried to pry the man\u2019s identify from Phillips.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere was somebody else in the room with you, who was it\u201d Pamphilis asked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not at liberty to say,\u201d Phillips replied.<\/p>\n<p>Judge Hoyt interjected, \u201cI\u2019m ordering you to.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m a confidential informant, I can\u2019t do it,\u201d Phillips said.<\/p>\n<p>Engelbrecht, 52, then took the stand. Punctuating her testimony with long dramatic pauses, she also declined to name the third man in the Dallas hotel room: \u201cI can\u2019t give the name because he\u2019s an informant.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Engelbrecht said she and Phillips lost their FBI confidential informant status in May after the criminal division of the Arizona Attorney General\u2019s Office, which had been working with the pair on election fraud investigations, started calling different FBI offices and inquiring about them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Arizona AG\u2019s Office made so many calls it caused us to lose that status,\u201d she said, before acknowledging that the agency had recently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2022\/10\/14\/arizona-ag-true-the-vote-00061973\">asked<\/a> the FBI and IRS to investigate True the Vote because it had not delivered promised data proving widespread fraud in the 2020 election.<\/p>\n<p>Engelbrecht and Phillips co-produced, with conservative commentator Dinesh D\u2019Souza, a documentary called \u201c2000 Mules\u201d in which they purport to show, using cellphone app geolocation data and surveillance footage how 2,000 people, \u201cmules,\u201d working for unnamed nonprofits potentially stuffed 380,000 fraudulent ballots in drop boxes in five swing states that Joe Biden narrowly won in the 2020 election.<\/p>\n<p>Near the end of a four-hour hearing that felt like eight hours, Wynne, True the Vote\u2019s attorney, asked Engelbrecht if she would reveal the mystery man\u2019s name if he could confirm with the FBI it is OK to do so.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes,\u201d she replied. \u201cBut I\u2019m just very concerned about security.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hoyt pointed out that as a federal judge, he has the \u201chighest security clearance of anyone in this country\u201d and said Engelbrecht and Phillips must divulge the man\u2019s identity before a hearing Monday morning<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey are both in contempt of court. And they have until 9 a.m. Monday to cure it, otherwise I\u2019ll ask the U.S. Marshals to detain them,\u201d Hoyt pronounced.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>via www.courthousenews.com<\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>October 28, 2022 at 06:46AM Federal judge holds tight-lipped chiefs of election denial group in contempt \u00a0 True the Vote&#8217;s principals said they could not divulge the name of an FBI informant involved in a hack of poll workers&#8217; personal data. A judge said they had no choice. A bowl of stickers is set out [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6038,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[278,221,8],"tags":[103],"class_list":["post-6036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-am-headline","category-election-integrity","category-featured-stories","tag-sbn"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Screen-Shot-2022-10-28-at-6.45.48-AM.png?fit=1336%2C1066&ssl=1",1336,1066,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Screen-Shot-2022-10-28-at-6.45.48-AM.png?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Screen-Shot-2022-10-28-at-6.45.48-AM.png?fit=300%2C239&ssl=1",300,239,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Screen-Shot-2022-10-28-at-6.45.48-AM.png?fit=768%2C613&ssl=1",768,613,true],"large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Screen-Shot-2022-10-28-at-6.45.48-AM.png?fit=1024%2C817&ssl=1",1024,817,true],"rpg_gallery_admin_thumb":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Screen-Shot-2022-10-28-at-6.45.48-AM.png?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1",150,150,true],"rpg_gallery_thumb":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Screen-Shot-2022-10-28-at-6.45.48-AM.png?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1",150,150,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Screen-Shot-2022-10-28-at-6.45.48-AM.png?fit=1336%2C1066&ssl=1",1336,1066,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Screen-Shot-2022-10-28-at-6.45.48-AM.png?fit=1336%2C1066&ssl=1",1336,1066,true]},"author_info":{"info":["Peter Santilli"]},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/?cat=278\" rel=\"category\">AM Headline<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/?cat=221\" rel=\"category\">Election Integrity<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/?cat=8\" rel=\"category\">Featured Stories<\/a>","tag_info":"Featured Stories","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/petersantilli.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Screen-Shot-2022-10-28-at-6.45.48-AM.png?fit=1336%2C1066&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/plD2r-1zm","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6036"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6076,"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6036\/revisions\/6076"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petersantilli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}