A new email obtained by Media says state
officials never did issue the subpoena, even
though the judge had ordered that evidence be
preserved, including from the FBI.
The FBI data is central to activists’ challenge
to Georgia’s highly questioned, centrally
administered elections system, which lacks
an auditable paper trail and was run at the
time by Gov. Brian Kemp, then Georgia’s
secretary of state.
The plaintiffs contend Kemp’s handling of the
wiped server is the most glaring example of
mismanagement that could be hiding evidence
of vote tampering. They have been fighting for
access to the state’s black-box voting systems
and to individual voting machines, many
of which they say have also been altered in
violation of court order.
Marilyn Marks of the Coalition for Good
Governance, a plaintiff in the case, said that if
the state failed to secure the data from the FBI
— despite informing U.S. District Judge Amy
Totenberg in October 2017 of its intent to do
so with the subpoena — it clearly has
something to hide.
“If they have destroyed records then it can be
presumed that those records would have shown
our allegations to be true,” Marks said.
Neither the Secretary of State’s office nor
an attorney representing it in the case, Josh
Belinfante, would say why the subpoena was
never filed. Nor would they say whether they
had obtained the data through other means
for secure safekeeping. The FBI in Atlanta also
wouldn’t say whether it has provided the state
with a copy.