When the Arizona Attorney General’s Office (AGO) publicly released several documents related to its attempted investigation of True The Vote’s election fraud complaint, the complaint itself was 99 percent redacted.
Now, officials with True The Vote will be given a chance to argue why their complaint about election misconduct in Maricopa and Yuma counties should not be released to the public in its entirely.
As reported by Arizona Daily Independent earlier this month, True The Vote officials first met with AGO investigators on June 3, 2021. Over the next 14 months, numerous state employees attempted to obtain data which True The Vote claimed to possess, including geocaching which purportedly captured illegal ballot harvesting activities.
One of the activities state employees engaged in is reviewing a March 28, 2022, complaint submitted by True The Vote about alleged violations of state and federal election laws. The complaint, noted by True The Vote as “confidential, not for distribution,” was redacted by the AGO before being recently released in response to a public records request.
Only about 60 words are visible on the three-page document following redaction.
However, Arizona Daily Independent filed a new public records request with the AGO last week seeking an unredacted version of True The Vote’s complaint.
The request was submitted after True The Vote investigator Gregg Phillips and founder Catherine Engelbrecht took part in an Aug. 13 live broadcast event in Arizona then left the state without providing investigators or the public with the long-promised data to support their complaint.
Engelbrecht told the event attendees “it’s time to move on” and that “we’re done” with the “mules.”
WHERE IS TRUE THE VOTE’S EVIDENCE? AGO Have No Record Of Getting True The Vote’s Hard Drive Of Purported Election Fraud Data >>>
Public records often provide a better understanding of why a government agency makes the decisions it makes. In relation to True The Vote, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich’s staff expended a lot of time and resources attempting to get True The Vote’s purported data.
At one point, AGO Supervising Special Agent James Cope offered to use taxpayer funds to pay for airfare and hotel expenses to facilitate True The Vote in turning over the data that Engelbrecht and other group representatives first promised last summer to share with Brnovich’s investigators and the FBI.
In response to the new public records request, an AGO spokesperson explained that notice must first be made to True The Vote. This allows the group an opportunity to fight against release of the March 28 complaint. That process could take several weeks, the spokesperson noted.
Engelbrecht sent an email to Arizona Daily Independent on Aug. 15, the day after the article about the AGO’s release of public records. She claimed once again that True The Vote provided a hard drive to Attorney General Mark Brnovich’s staff on June 3, 2021, and alleged that the AGO was now denying “ever having that meeting.”
It is unclear what Engelbrecht based the denial claim on, as multiple documents released by the AGO mention the meeting as well as names of staff investigators who attended.
Engelbrecht also alleges the AGO provided active case files to a national media outlet in a manner which exposed whistleblowers, one of whom purportedly worked with True The Vote and was featured in the “2000 Mules” movie that the group was involved in producing.
“This is all designed to silence anyone who breaks with the line that ‘there was no fraud in 2020,’” Engelbrecht wrote. “Anyone else who says otherwise is marked for takedown. In our case, the use of geospatial (cell phone) data embarrassed them. Since then, they have been on offense against us.”
Englebrecht also told Arizona Daily Independent she would appreciate being asked for a quote in the future. Such a request was made the same day directly to Engelbrecht along with a request for some documentation. Days later there has been no response.