Karen Fann, the Republican leader of the Arizona state Senate, has said that Cyber Ninjas, the private company commissioned to conduct an audit of Maricopa County's election results, is now in "breach of contract" with the state for not providing audit-related documentation.
In an October 26 letter to Cyber Ninjas and CEO Doug Logan, Fann said that she had previously sent Logan a September 14 letter. In that letter, Fann told the company to submit all its audit-related records to her in order to comply with a court order. Cyber Ninjas only provided 300 records, "an insubstantial percentage of all existing responsive records," Fann wrote.
"Accordingly, Cyber Ninjas' inadequate response to my September 14 request places it in material breach of the (contract) as construed by the court," her letter continued. "The Senate reserves its rights to pursue any and every applicable claim or reemit to enforce the agreement's provisions."
A draft report of the Maricopa County election audit, released on September 24, found that President Joe Biden won more votes than previously expected over former President Donald Trump. The audit discounted fraud.
However, Republican Arizona State Senator Sonny Borrelli said the audit proved "evidence of a conspiracy." He said the state's election results should be "nullified" as a result. The state's Republican Governor Doug Ducey said there would be nullification.
A group of prominent election analysts called the Cyber Ninja's audit methodology "laughable." Several of them alleged that the auditors simply "made up the numbers."
Since the audit's conclusion, Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward called for election audits in all 15 of the state's counties.
Generally speaking, the push for election audits has been predominantly led by Trump supporters and Trump-backing Republican officials. Trump has long repeated baseless claims that he lost the 2020 election due to an unprecedented national conspiracy of widespread voter fraud.
Trump's former attorney general, his head of U.S. cybersecurity and statewide audits have all found no evidence that the 2020 election was stolen.
Earlier this month, Stephen Richer, a Republican who serves as the Maricopa County recorder, said that the majority of Republican Arizona lawmakers he speaks to actually know Trump's and their own election fraud claims are "all BS." Nevertheless, many continue to give them credence anyway, Richer noted.
"Right now, a lot of Republican politicians have their fingers in the wind and think that conforming to Stop the Steal, or at least staying quiet about it, is necessary for re-election in their ruby red districts or a statewide Republican primary," Richer wrote in a 38-page open letter to fellow Republicans.
"So that's what they'll do. Multiple elected or hoping-to-be-elected Republicans have told me this explicitly," he said. "It's disgusting."
On October 14, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Michael Kemp ruled that the Arizona Senate had to allow the public viewing of all communications that it had with the Cyber Ninjas. His ruling blocked the Senate from keeping about 1,000 messages between Senate leaders and the Cyber Ninjas private.
"Senate Defendants cannot publicly release numerous public statements about the audit, release a comprehensive report about the audit, and then refuse to disclose documents and communications that are central and integral to the findings and conclusions of that report," Kemp wrote in his decision.
Newsweek contacted Cyber Ninjas for comment.
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