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Dunario Cherry/Reuters
Stephanie Lambert stands in a courtroom in Detroit, Michigan in October 2022.
CNN
—
A pro-Trump lawyer who tried to overturn the 2020 election was arrested Monday after a court hearing regarding the recent leak of internal emails belonging to Dominion Voting Systems.
The attorney, Stephanie Lambert, has an existing arrest warrant for failing to appear at a recent court hearing in a separate Michigan criminal case in which she was charged with conspiracy to seize voting machines after the 2020 election. It was out.
Mr. Lambert and election denial leaders have publicly leaked thousands of internal emails in recent days and are using the disclosures to revive false claims of voter fraud currently underway at Dominion. thwarted one of his many defamation lawsuits.
The controversy alleges that Lambert has supported conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and provided confidential Dominion documents to Barry County Sheriff Dar Leaf, who has used his office to investigate allegations of voter fraud against Donald Trump. This caused an outbreak. In the past 24 hours, Mr. Leaf posted over 2,000 internal Dominion documents to his social media accounts.
Lambert had access to Dominion’s files because he represents former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne, who is being sued for defamation by the voting company over lies in the 2020 election. As part of the lawsuit, they have access to “discovery” from Dominion, and Dominion’s lawyers said they have already turned over more than 1 million documents.
Ms. Lambert attended a hearing in Ms. Byrne’s defamation case in Washington, D.C., on Monday, but was not seen leaving the courtroom, raising questions among other lawyers about whether she had been detained. swirled.
The judge instructed Lambert to remain behind until the end of the hearing. The other attorneys left the courtroom, then two U.S. marshals entered the courtroom and locked the doors. Lambert was never seen leaving the courtroom. Her sheriff’s officials declined to say whether they had arrested her and did not respond to messages seeking comment after the hearing.
The U.S. Marshals Service confirmed Lambert’s arrest in a statement late Monday.
“The U.S. Marshals Service can confirm the arrest of Stephanie Lambert early this afternoon. Lambert is currently in custody on local charges,” the agency said in a statement, referring to her Michigan-based criminal case. Stated.
The Dominion leaks have diverted attention, at least for now, from the 2020 election-related defamation allegations. Further hearings will be needed to address this issue and for the judge to consider the possible consequences for Mr. Lambert.
Lawyers for Dominion also said in the filing that Dominion employees have already received new death threats in the wake of the revelations. The messages posted online by Leaf include the Dominion employee’s name, email address, cell phone number, and office address.
In a sometimes testy hearing Monday, Judge Mokshila Upadhyaya asked Lambert pointed questions about the disputed Dominion materials. The judge ordered Lambert to restrict access to databases containing Dominion documents.
“I will explain the reasons later, but for now we need to maintain the status quo,” Upadhyaya said, adding: “We need to prevent any further spread.”
The judge said there will be a future hearing to determine whether Lambert violated a court order by leaking Dominion files, and Byrne will be required to appear in court to answer questions. Dominion has asked for Lambert to be removed from the case, suggesting in court Monday that she may have committed her crimes by passing the files to Leaf.
In court filings and public statements, Lambert, Leaf and Byrne argued that the documents they disclosed contained evidence that Serbian citizens interfered in the 2020 election at Dominion’s request.
A Dominion spokesperson said after the hearing: “As has been public knowledge for years, Dominion maintains a small number of staff members in Serbia; “The allegation that there was an attempt to interfere is completely false,” he told CNN after the hearing.
At the hearing, Lambert admitted giving the materials to Leaf, but said he was allowed to do so because he was reporting the crime to “law enforcement.” He also called on Congress to investigate his claims that “foreign nationals” interfered in the 2020 election, which U.S. intelligence agencies say was the most secure ever.
“I have turned over the documents to law enforcement,” Lambert told the judge.
Dominion blasted Lambert and Byrne in court filings ahead of the hearing, calling their claims of Serbian interference in the US election “xenophobic” and calling Lambert frivolous. He noted that he was nearly sanctioned for his role in a conspiratorial election lawsuit.
“It’s been almost four years, when will it end?” Dominion attorney Davida Brooke said in court Monday, accusing Lambert and Byrne of “using these lawsuits to spread more lies.” did.
Dominion is suing several other pro-Trump figures who have spread similar lies about the 2020 election. They include former Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, as well as right-wing cable networks Newsmax and One America News. Last year, Dominion settled a defamation lawsuit against Fox News for $787 million, the largest defamation settlement in publicly known U.S. history.
This article and heading have been updated with additional developments.
CNN’s Holmes Lybrand contributed to this report.
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