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After a disastrous day in court on Thursday, the company behind Arizona’s chaotic Maricopa County election “audit” is disbanding, and now some right-wing fans are furiously wondering if this was all just a big scam.
Cyber ​​Ninjas, a small Florida-based cybersecurity firm, has always been a controversial choice for handling the ballots of Maricopa County’s voters. The company had no experience with elections and its founder, Doug Logan, was involved in promoting 2020 election fraud hoaxes online. When Cyber ​​Ninjas finally released its results that fall, it turned out that President Joe Biden had indeed won the election. But the group did not release any court-ordered materials, and on Thursday a judge ordered cyber ninjas to pay $ 50,000 for every day they continued to withhold documents. That night, the company announced its liquidation and reportedly laid off all employees.
“Cyber ​​Ninjas is Shutting Down,” Spokesperson Rod Thompson told NBC on Thursday. “All employees were fired.” The group’s lawyer, Jack Wilenchik, too said the Associated Press that the company had laid off all of its employees and was now insolvent.
The move is a blow to the dead who long insisted that cyber ninjas secretly have evidence of Donald Trump’s victory in 2020 – but who are now calling the group “Grifter”.
Since the audit started this spring, cyber ninjas have claimed to be conducting the operation with radical transparency, sharing live streams of auditors as they leafed through stacks of ballot papers. The live streams attracted an online community on messaging platforms like Telegram. Some of these Telegram channels were less than happy with the breakup of Cyber ​​Ninjas on Thursday.
“FAKES,” complained a member of an Arizona audit channel. “FROM ABOUT [son of a bitch], all they care about is $. “
“If you fund this, I feel like you are being bullied.â€
Cyber ​​ninjas did collect the money over the course of the month-long test. In July, the company has announced More than $ 5.7 million in fan donations. Meanwhile, the audit of the group has been a mess that has exceeded its budget in the millions and the deadlines by months appeared in conspiracy documentaries about the choice and were accused of ignoring sexual harassment.
But the group also made a costly mistake in refusing to release court-ordered records of what the newspaper said Arizona Republic searched via a public request for information. During a scorn of the trial on Thursday the republic requested a $ 1,000 per day sanction until cyber ninjas turned over the documents. Maricopa Superior Court Judge John Hannah described $ 1,000 as “grossly insufficient” and increased the sanction to $ 50,000 per day.
“It is clear from this recording that Cyber ​​Ninjas disregarded this order,” Hannah said said on Thursday.
Hannah also doubted the idea that a recently deceased cyber ninjas couldn’t produce the documents. “The court will not accept the claim that Cyber ​​Ninjas is an empty shell and that no one is responsible for ensuring that it is respected.” Hannah said.
Wilenchick told the AP that the group would not show the documents because they could no longer afford to find them. However, Hannah warned that the $ 50,000 sanctions began Friday and would apply to individuals, not just the now-defunct company.
Some Cyber ​​Ninjas fans expressed confusion over the group’s lack of transparency.
“Why don’t you hand over your documents?” One wrote on Telegram as others lamented the $ 50,000-a-day penalty.
Another audit observer found that the money cyber ninjas allegedly needed to get the documents back “was a drop in the bucket compared to the amount they spent trying to bring these records to court.” . But on the other hand, ‘give us more money to show you how we spent your other money’ is a perfectly predictable mistake. “
Other fans urged caution. “We really don’t have all the facts, do we?” One wrote. “If we get a grip on the fact and it turns out that their actions are those of Grifter, then by all means name them Grifter.”
Die-hard fans of Cyber ​​Ninjas and the Arizona Audit have long claimed the group could prove Trump won Maricopa County. Although Cyber ​​Ninjas’ final audit report ultimately found that Biden won more votes in Maricopa County than Trump, their leaders hinted that their audit had exposed alarming voter fraud. They later alleged 77 cases of suspected election fraud, 76 of which were debunked Thursday by Arizona officials. (The finale, a case of a small double count, was confirmed.)
After the disastrous appearance by Cyber ​​Ninjas on Thursday, some conspiracy theorists took to the air to claim that Maricopa County’s audit found fraud, but incompetent auditors botched their report.
On a Thursday night web broadcast, electoral conspiracy promoter Shiva Ayyadurai blew up Jovan Pulitzer, another conspiracy theorist and allegedly failed treasure hunter who claimed to have found “cinematic artifacts” that were fraudulent on Maricopa district ballot papers proven.
“There is no kinematic artifact detection. It is pure reparation for the Maricopa report, â€Ayyadurai lamented the Pulitzer report. He still holds on to the idea that there was election fraud in Maricopa County, but viewed Pulitzer’s participation in the exam as a fraud.
“If you fund this, I feel like you are being bullied,” he said.
Audit records show Ayyadurai worked twice on the Maricopa County audit: once in the service of cyber ninjas and once for the Arizona State Senate. Ayyadurai, who blamed alleged election fraud for his own election loss, accused Pulitzer of manipulating state officials’ views on the trial.
“If they get this crap, they’ll think the whole audit was just rubbish,” he said.
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