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well, he's a RINO so... there's that....
After over a year of “good faith attempts to work together,” Texas-based election integrity nonprofit True the Vote’s Catherine Engelbrecht and lead investigator Gregg Phillips of the OPSEC Group, an election intelligence company, say they no longer trust the intentions of the Arizona Attorney General Office’s Criminal Division.
The veteran grassroots organizer told The Arizona Sun Times the election integrity group turned over evidence to both the FBI and local law enforcement, including the Criminal Division of the Arizona Attorney General’s Office (AGO), and has met with AGO criminal investigators numerous times since first contacting them in the summer of 2021 – all to no effect.
Engelbrecht told The Sun Times they turned over a hard drive of evidence to the AGO’s criminal division a year ago, but nothing appeared to happen with it.
Engelbrecht said one of the most shocking aspects of their “mishandling” of the investigation took place while it was still ongoing. The AGO released its own case notes to the Associated Press — including the names of whistleblowers. She said, “One of the people named was a whistleblower shown in the 2000 Mules movie. That’s when we stopped communicating.” One was a judge, and another has received threats as well as being the victim of a tire-slashing incident.
An article published Friday in Axios stated that the “‘2000 Mules’ group ignored Arizona AG’s requests for info.” It said the AGO made four requests to True the Vote (TTV) for a hard drive and other evidence that were not fulfilled. The AGO also reportedly told Axios that True the Vote claimed in March that they’d turned over testimonials from people involved in ballot harvesting in Arizona, but the AGO had not received them.
However, Engelbrecht disputes the account described in the Axios story. She sent The Sun Times copies of emails exchanged between her group and the AGO. She said True the Vote first met with the AGO’s Criminal Division in the summer of 2021 and gave them a hard drive of information related to the Maricopa County drop boxes (It did not include information related to the drop boxes in San Luis, Arizona).
The project expanded several months later, including the production of the 2000 Mules documentary. “By March 2022 we’d completed the San Luis analysis, had audio and video with whistleblowers, plus all the data and analysis,” she told The Sun Times. “We filed a formal complaint letter with the AZ AG and provided it to members of the legislature, including Karen Fann.”
In April, Engelbrecht said she and Phillips were invited back to Phoenix to meet with legislators. Engelbrecht also coordinated another meeting with agents from the FBI Regional Office in Phoenix, where she arranged to give the FBI all of the new audio, video, and analysis. She also contacted the AGO’s Assistant Chief Deputy Josh Kredit to set up another meeting with the AGO’s Criminal Division, which he scheduled.
At the meeting. which Engelbrecht said included about five employees, Engelbrecht said they claimed they had never met with True the Vote before, which she found strange since they had met previously almost a year ago, and they denied ever receiving the hard drive of information. The AGO’s Criminal Division was working on the San Luis ballot harvesting investigation at that time. “We stated that we could get them everything under subpoena, that the FBI had everything, and we definitely wanted to work with them,” Engelbrecht said.
After that, Engelbrecht suspects the Criminal Division heard that True the Vote would be testifying to the Arizona Legislature about 2000 Mules, because on May 19, AGO Supervising Special Agent James Cope sent a letter to True the Vote requesting information pertaining to 2000 Mules and “stash houses” identified in the movie. The letter stated that the office initially requested the information on April 5 but it was not provided within a week as agreed. Cope said, “As of today May 19th, 2022, we have not received any information from TruetheVote or Mr. Phillips.”
Engelbrecht said he “curiously omitted reference to the previous meetings, the pages of notes taken by AGO staff, and detailed review of the official complaint filed by TTV which requested protections of data and confidential information under subpoena.”
On May 27, True the Vote Executive Director Cole Hughes responded to Cope by email, writing, “Please find attached a letter in response to your request for additional information.” In his letter, Hughes reminded the AGO that True the Vote had previously provided the hard drive. “Almost one year ago, June 23, 2021, Mr. Gregg Phillips met with Mr. Williams, Mr. Gadow, and Mr. Knuth, from your office,” he said. “At the meeting, he provided a hard drive of all Arizona-related information gathered to that point. An identical copy was also provided to the Arizona regional office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”
On May 31, Cope sent True the Vote a letter stating they had received their submission and were available to meet the next day. He stated he had not yet received the hard drive that True the Vote said would be turned over. “One point of clarification that we believe must be made is with regard to what evidence our office has received thus far from True the Vote. We understand that you believe a hard drive was already provided to our office; however, we have not received such a hard drive.”
Engelbrecht observed to The Sun Times, “It was as if our April meeting never occurred and our official complaint disregarded. The focus seemed to be on creating a paper trail against us rather than actually progressing on the investigation we had contacted them about in 2021.”
arizonasuntimes.com
True the Vote Calls Out Arizona AG Criminal Division Over ‘Mishandling’ Its ‘2000 Mules’ Complaint, Unmasking Informants
September 5, 2022
After over a year of “good faith attempts to work together,” Texas-based election integrity nonprofit True the Vote’s Catherine Engelbrecht and lead investigator Gregg Phillips of the OPSEC Group, an election intelligence company, say they no longer trust the intentions of the Arizona Attorney General Office’s Criminal Division.
The veteran grassroots organizer told The Arizona Sun Times the election integrity group turned over evidence to both the FBI and local law enforcement, including the Criminal Division of the Arizona Attorney General’s Office (AGO), and has met with AGO criminal investigators numerous times since first contacting them in the summer of 2021 – all to no effect.
“We reached out to them first, we gave them data, they did nothing with (except lose it, apparently) for nine months,” Engelbrecht said. “Then we offered it all again, in writing, under subpoena. They have subpoena power and had an active investigation at the time. It would have taken minutes. Instead they did nothing except send weird letters. And in the end it became clear, all they were ever trying to do is discredit us.”
Engelbrecht told The Sun Times they turned over a hard drive of evidence to the AGO’s criminal division a year ago, but nothing appeared to happen with it.
Engelbrecht said one of the most shocking aspects of their “mishandling” of the investigation took place while it was still ongoing. The AGO released its own case notes to the Associated Press — including the names of whistleblowers. She said, “One of the people named was a whistleblower shown in the 2000 Mules movie. That’s when we stopped communicating.” One was a judge, and another has received threats as well as being the victim of a tire-slashing incident.
An article published Friday in Axios stated that the “‘2000 Mules’ group ignored Arizona AG’s requests for info.” It said the AGO made four requests to True the Vote (TTV) for a hard drive and other evidence that were not fulfilled. The AGO also reportedly told Axios that True the Vote claimed in March that they’d turned over testimonials from people involved in ballot harvesting in Arizona, but the AGO had not received them.
However, Engelbrecht disputes the account described in the Axios story. She sent The Sun Times copies of emails exchanged between her group and the AGO. She said True the Vote first met with the AGO’s Criminal Division in the summer of 2021 and gave them a hard drive of information related to the Maricopa County drop boxes (It did not include information related to the drop boxes in San Luis, Arizona).
The project expanded several months later, including the production of the 2000 Mules documentary. “By March 2022 we’d completed the San Luis analysis, had audio and video with whistleblowers, plus all the data and analysis,” she told The Sun Times. “We filed a formal complaint letter with the AZ AG and provided it to members of the legislature, including Karen Fann.”
In April, Engelbrecht said she and Phillips were invited back to Phoenix to meet with legislators. Engelbrecht also coordinated another meeting with agents from the FBI Regional Office in Phoenix, where she arranged to give the FBI all of the new audio, video, and analysis. She also contacted the AGO’s Assistant Chief Deputy Josh Kredit to set up another meeting with the AGO’s Criminal Division, which he scheduled.
At the meeting. which Engelbrecht said included about five employees, Engelbrecht said they claimed they had never met with True the Vote before, which she found strange since they had met previously almost a year ago, and they denied ever receiving the hard drive of information. The AGO’s Criminal Division was working on the San Luis ballot harvesting investigation at that time. “We stated that we could get them everything under subpoena, that the FBI had everything, and we definitely wanted to work with them,” Engelbrecht said.
After that, Engelbrecht suspects the Criminal Division heard that True the Vote would be testifying to the Arizona Legislature about 2000 Mules, because on May 19, AGO Supervising Special Agent James Cope sent a letter to True the Vote requesting information pertaining to 2000 Mules and “stash houses” identified in the movie. The letter stated that the office initially requested the information on April 5 but it was not provided within a week as agreed. Cope said, “As of today May 19th, 2022, we have not received any information from TruetheVote or Mr. Phillips.”
Engelbrecht said he “curiously omitted reference to the previous meetings, the pages of notes taken by AGO staff, and detailed review of the official complaint filed by TTV which requested protections of data and confidential information under subpoena.”
On May 27, True the Vote Executive Director Cole Hughes responded to Cope by email, writing, “Please find attached a letter in response to your request for additional information.” In his letter, Hughes reminded the AGO that True the Vote had previously provided the hard drive. “Almost one year ago, June 23, 2021, Mr. Gregg Phillips met with Mr. Williams, Mr. Gadow, and Mr. Knuth, from your office,” he said. “At the meeting, he provided a hard drive of all Arizona-related information gathered to that point. An identical copy was also provided to the Arizona regional office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”
On May 31, Cope sent True the Vote a letter stating they had received their submission and were available to meet the next day. He stated he had not yet received the hard drive that True the Vote said would be turned over. “One point of clarification that we believe must be made is with regard to what evidence our office has received thus far from True the Vote. We understand that you believe a hard drive was already provided to our office; however, we have not received such a hard drive.”
Engelbrecht observed to The Sun Times, “It was as if our April meeting never occurred and our official complaint disregarded. The focus seemed to be on creating a paper trail against us rather than actually progressing on the investigation we had contacted them about in 2021.”
True the Vote Calls Out Arizona AG Criminal Division Over 'Mishandling' Its '2000 Mules' Complaint, Unmasking Informants - The Arizona Sun Times
After over a year of “good faith attempts to work together,” Texas-based election integrity nonprofit True the Vote's Catherine Engelbrecht and lead investigator Gregg Phillips of the OPSEC Group, an election intelligence company, say they no longer trust the intentions of the Arizona Attorney...
arizonasuntimes.com
