The Sun and News, Saturday, March 23, 2024/ Page 7Barry County Sheriff releases voter fraud
investigation docs, asks Congress to investigate
Jayson Bussa
Editor
Barry County Sheriff Dar
Leaf has released a cache of
documents he says points to
improprieties in the 2020
election and has appealed to
a United States
Congressman to launch a
federal investigation into
the matter.
Leaf has spent years uti-
lizing resources in his own
department and collaborat-
ing with a nationwide net-
work of individuals who
have concerns about the
integrity of the 2020 presi-
dential election and the
election process in general.
Over the course of that
investigation, Leaf has
claimed to have accumulat-
ed a deluge of evidence and
information.
Earlier this week was a
rare moment when Leaf
went public with some of
that information.
Establishing a new account
on the social media website
X, formerly known as
Twitter, Leaf linked to a
trove of internal email com-
munications amongst
employees and contractors
at Dominion Voting
Systems, which develops
election hardware and soft-
ware used throughout the
United States, including in
most Michigan counties.
Through the X account,
Leaf, who confirmed to the
Sun and News that he estab-
lished the account, also
linked to individual email
exchanges, which appear to
show Dominion Voting
Systems employees trou-
bleshooting various issues.
As the Sun and News con-
tinues to review the hundreds
of emails in question, Leaf
has pointed to them as a
smoking gun that Serbian
nationals had infiltrated the
election process. Leaf lays
out his argument in an open
letter directed at United
States Congressman Jim
Jordan (R-Ohio), who chairs
the Committee of the
Judiciary and the
Subcommittee on the
Weaponization of the Federal
Government. In the letter,
dated March 17 and pub-
lished on Barry County
Sheriff’s Office letterhead,
Leaf asks Jordan, with the
evidence, to launch an inves-
tigation into the matter.
“My office is investigat-
ing criminal acts related to
elections in Barry County,
the State of Michigan and
the United States. I am in
possession of evidence
involving voting machines,”
Leaf wrote in his letter to
Rep. Jordan.
“My office has come into
possession of evidence that
foreign nationals have
accessed electronic voting
machines in Michigan and
other states,” the letter con-
tinues further down. “This
evidence demonstrates that
electronic voting machines
and electronic election sys-
tems used for elections in
Michigan and throughout
the United States are not
secure and an immediate
investigation is needed by
Congress.”
The origins of the internal
emails written by Dominion
employees came to light
shortly after and are tied in
with a court case between
Dominion and Patrick Byrne,
the former CEO of online
retailer Overstock.
Dominion is suing Byrne
in federal court over what
they believe were false
claims of voter fraud made
by the former CEO. Byrne
is being represented by
Stefanie Lambert, an attor-
ney that Leaf has worked
with throughout the past
three years.Lambert said in inter-
views that she received the
documents as part of dis-
covery in that case, and
upon spotting evidence that
she thought indicated ille-
gal activity, she turned it
over to “law enforcement,”
which included Leaf.
Lambert was arrested on
Monday after violating
court orders in a separate
case where she faces crimi-
nal charges.
As a result of Lambert
relaying these documents,
attorneys for Dominionfiled an emergency motion
asking a federal court to
disqualify Lambert from
providing legal counsel to
Byrne.
“Not only did Lambert
follow her client’s instruc-
tion to share Dominion’s
documents with an
unknown number of indi-
viduals, she also filed doz-
ens of them publicly in an
unrelated proceeding (to
which Dominion is not a
party), and they have now
been viewed by tens of
thousands of users on social
media. This too is a clear
violation of this court’s
orders,” an attorney for
Dominion stated in the
motion.
Lambert is facing charges
of her own in a separate
case. A special prosecutor
in Michigan has charged
her, and two others, for an
alleged conspiracy to ille-
gally obtain and test voting
tabulators, one of which
was from Irving Township.
The special prosecutor,
Muskegon County
Prosecutor D.J. Hilson, ini-
tially looked into charging
Leaf, too, but didn’t find
sufficient evidence to
charge the sheriff with a
crime.
Hilson did subpoena Leaf
in the state’s case againstLambert recently and
ordered him to hand over
the files in his election
fraud investigation. Leaf
submitted an affidavit
refusing to hand over his
case files and claiming that
he had evidence that shows
Dominion employees
“tasked Serbian nationals to
remotely access the
Michigan election system.”
“I’m not willing to com-
promise my investigation
by providing my entire
file,” Leaf stated in the affi-
davit.The Sun and News
reached out to the Secretary
of State’s Office for a reac-
tion on Leaf’s claims.
“Michigan’s election sys-
tems are secure, adminis-
tered by nonpartisan, pro-
fessional election officials
and the results are an accu-
rate reflection of the will of
the voters. The department
is not involved in this law-
suit and so it would not be
appropriate to comment on
documents allegedly related
to this case,” Angela
Benander, director of com-
munications and media
relations for the Michigan
Department of State said in
a text message.
Dominion Voting
Systems has been on the
receiving end of voter fraud
claims by high-profile indi-
viduals and media networks
over the last few years and
has not hesitated to slap
back with defamation law-
suits when the accusations
have proven false, as they
typically have.
One of the most high-pro-
file of legal proceedings
came last year when
Dominion sued Fox News
Network for defamation
and both sides settled for
$787 million.
With this sort of litigious
history, county officials are
concerned about what sort
of liability Barry County
might have if the same sce-
nario plays out on the heels
of Leaf’s claims against
Dominion.
Dave Jackson, Chairman
of the Barry County Boardof Commissioners, spoke
briefly about the situation
at Tuesday’s meeting.
Jackson and the board
drafted a statement on the
matter and it reads in full
below:
“The Barry County Board
of Commissioners is aware
of the ongoing election
investigation by Sheriff
Leaf. We are also aware of
the information being
released on social media to
the attention of Rep. Jim
Jordan. The Board of
Commissioners did not
review or authorize any such
investigation into Dominion
and/or their representatives.
Sheriff Leaf is acting on his
own behalf and in coordina-
tion with other individuals
who have ongoing concerns
about the 2020 elections.
“We continue to support
our local clerks and believe
that elections in Barry
County are continuing with
the utmost integrity and
professionalism. The Barry
County Board of
Commissioners has not
been briefed on Sheriff
Leaf’s investigation locally
or nationally and with the
release of the latest infor-
mation we will be with-
holding any further com-
ment as the process plays
out legally between Sheriff
Leaf, the State of Michigan
and other named parties.”Jackson added a few
more thoughts after reading
the statement.
“I guess from a standpoint
of election integrity, we all
want elections to be free, to
be fair, to be accurate,” he
said. “We all support that. If
there is something here that
leads to a further investiga-
tion or clarification, by all
means, we hope someone
will take it up. The concern
is a small county like Barry
County wrestling with a
national investigation of this
structure.”
“We’re concerned about
that,” Jackson added. “It is
on our radar and we’re con-
tinuing to monitor it. We
feel a little in the dark about
all of this.”The Board of Commissioners did not review or
authorize any such investigation into Dominion
and/or their representatives. Sheriff Leaf is acting
on his own behalf and in coordination with other
individuals who have ongoing concerns about
the 2020 election. We continue to support our
local clerks and believe that elections in Barry
County are continuing with the utmost integrity
and professionalism.”
— Barry County Board
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Barry County Sheriff Dar Leaf is appealing to the United States Congress to
investigate potential voter fraud tied to the 2020 election. (Photo by Jayson
Bussa)