Established Fact
During the Arizona State Senate’s 2021 forensic audit of Maricopa County’s 2020 election results, both Maricopa County and its election system vendor Dominion Voting Systems refused to comply with Senate subpoenas for administrative passwords, security tokens, and routers used in the election. The county informed Senate liaison Ken Bennett on May 3, 2021 that it was “not in possession of the requested password and security token,” stating those credentials resided exclusively with Dominion’s contracted personnel. Dominion, for its part, independently refused the Senate’s subpoenas, calling them “illegal and unenforceable” and asserting that releasing proprietary security access to Cyber Ninjas — an unaccredited and uncertified firm — “would be reckless, causing irreparable damage to the commercial interests of the company and the election security interests of the country.” The county also repeatedly refused to provide network routers on security grounds, a refusal the Arizona Attorney General characterized as a violation of state law. The Cyber Ninjas audit report found that “by the County withholding subpoena items, their unwillingness to answer questions as is normal between auditor and auditee, and in some cases actively interfering with audit research, the County prevented a complete audit,” and recommended that legislation be considered with “financial and criminal penalties for purposely inhibiting a legislative investigation, or an officially sanctioned audit of an election.” Neither state nor federal authorities charged obstruction under A.R.S. § 13-2402 or 18 U.S.C. § 1505 in connection with these events.
Citations
Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and Dominion Voting Systems both refused Senate subpoenas issued July 26, 2021 by Arizona Senate President Karen Fann and Judiciary Chairman Warren Petersen. SeeSee CBS News, “Maricopa County and Dominion refuse to comply with subpoenas” (Aug. 4, 2021): https://www.cbsnews.com/news/arizona-audit-election-subpoenas-maricopa-county-dominion-voting-systems-refuse/ ; CNN, “Maricopa County defies latest subpoena request from Arizona state Senate” (Aug. 2, 2021): https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/02/politics/maricopa-county-defies-subpoena-state-senate.
Maricopa County Elections Department, Technical Response to Chain of Custody and Ballot Organization and Election Management System Databases (May 17, 2021), at 2: “As for the Dominion password and security token. The County is not in possession of the requested password and security token…. The County notified Ken Bennett, the Senate’s Liaison on 5/03/2021 that we were not in possession of the password and security token.” https://www.dgregscott.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/AZ-FinalTechnicalResponseLetterwithExhibits-5172021.pdf.
Dominion Voting Systems statement (May 2021), quoted in FOX 10 Phoenix (Aug. 2, 2021): “Releasing Dominion’s intellectual property to an unaccredited, biased, and plainly unreliable actor such as Cyber Ninjas would be reckless, causing irreparable damage to the commercial interests of the company and the election security interests of the country.” Dominion’s counsel separately described the July 26 subpoena as “illegal and unenforceable” in correspondence to Senate attorneys. SeeSee https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/maricopa-county-board-of-supervisors-rejects-subpoenas-issued-by-arizona-state-senate-in-scathing-letter
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich stated that the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors “violated state law by not complying with election audit subpoena.” SeeSee Wikipedia, 2021 Maricopa County Presidential Ballot Audit (August 2021 section), citing contemporaneous reporting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Maricopa_County_presidential_ballot_audit. The county attorney Thomas Liddy’s letter cited security risks to law enforcement communications as the basis for router refusal. The Board disputed the AG’s conclusion, arguing the Senate lacked enforcement authority when not in session.
Cyber Ninjas, Maricopa County Forensic Audit — Volume I, Executive Summary (Sept. 19–24, 2021), Finding Summary (“Audit Interference,” “Missing Subpoena Items,” “Subpoenaed Equipment Not Provided”) and Recommendation § 4.6: “Legislation should be considered with financial and criminal penalties for purposely inhibiting a legislative investigation, or an officially sanctioned audit of an election.” https://media.kjzz.org/s3fs-public/20210919_-Maricopa_County_Forensic_AuditMaricopa_County_Forensic_Audit–Volume_IVolume_I-_Executive_Summary.pdf