Firm says it thought copying of election data was legitimate

An Atlanta tech firm says it had “no reason to believe” it was breaking any laws when it sent four employees to Coffee County to copy sensitive election files.

The GBI recently opened a criminal investigation of computer trespass, which is a felony.

The company, SullivanStrickler, asserted this past week it was doing legitimate work in January 2021 under a contract with Sidney Powell, an attorney for then-President Donald Trump who had promised to “unleash the kraken” of claims that the 2020 presidential election was rigged.

“SullivanStrickler was retained by and took direction from licensed, practicing attorneys to preserve and forensically copy the Dominion Voting Machines used in the 2020 election. The firm had no reason to believe that, as officers of the court, these attorneys would ask or direct SullivanStrickler to do anything improper or illegal,” Amanda Clark Palmer, an attorney representing the company, said in an email.

The sensitive election data collected by SullivanStrickler in Coffee County and a similar operation in Michigan was later accessed by conspiracy theorists seeking to reverse the outcome of the election that Trump lost, The Washington Post first reported.

Joining the team from SullivanStrickler in Coffee County were several Trump supporters.

Coffee County officials gave SullivanStrickler access to its election office, which was supposed to be kept secure, one month after the county had reported a discrepancy of 50 votes during a recount of the presidential election. A dispute over the count fueled suspicions of Dominion Voting Systems, the maker of the state’s voting machines, but state election officials said the results were accurate.

Subpoenaed records show involvement by county election board member Eric Chaney, former Coffee County Election Director Misty Hampton and former county GOP Chairwoman Cathy Latham, who attempted to cast the state’s Electoral College votes for Trump as a fake elector for the Georgia Republican Party.

Election integrity advocates say copying the files increases the risk of malware or hacks that could affect future elections.

“Having this material is so vital to being able to craft manipulations, to be able to create hacks,” said Kevin Skoglund, a cybersecurity expert working for plaintiffs in an election security lawsuit that includes the Coffee County allegations. “The person in the basement has the ability to get this software and analyze it and look for vulnerabilities.”

Palmer said the purpose of SullivanStrickler’s work was to preserve election data.

“With the benefit of hindsight, and knowing everything they know now,” she said, “they would not take on any further work of this kind.”

Sidney Powell