Congressional Democrats tasked with leading the House Oversight and Reform Committee have launched a probe into the Arizona "audit" firm "Cyber Ninjas." The group conducted the hotly contested review of Maricopa County's ballots following the 2020 election.
In a Wednesday letter, Democratic Reps. Carolyn Maloney, the committee chair, and Rep. Jamie Raskin requested documents and communications from Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan stemming from the company's invasive audit that rendered voting machines useless in the state. The letter cites Logan over his firm's "lack of election audit experience," their "reported mismanagement of the audit in Maricopa County," and the CEO's "own bias and history of embracing conspiracy theories related to the election."
Logan, first caught headlines after a series of pro-Trump conspiracy theories were found posted to his social media channels, which the letter cites. "The parallels between the statistical analysis of Venezuela and this year's election are astonishing," Logan penned on social media back in December.
"The Committee is seeking to determine whether the privately funded audit conducted by your company in Arizona protects the right to vote or is instead an effort to promote baseless conspiracy theories, undermine confidence in America's elections, and reverse the result of a free and fair election for partisan gain," Maloney and Raskin outlined in the nine-page letter. "The Committee is particularly concerned that your company's actions could undermine the integrity of federal elections and interfere with Americans' constitutional right to cast their ballot freely and to have their votes counted without partisan interference."
Far-right Arizona congressman Paul Gosar, a fellow House Oversight committee member, following the letter, suggested on Twitter that the audit was making Democrats "worried" due to its alleged effectiveness. "Now congressional Democrats are trying to insert themselves into a state election issue. They seem very worried about something," he stated.
The House committee has set a July 28th deadline for Logan and his Cyber Ninja technology firm to turn over the requested documents. Numerous Salon requests for comment to Logan and the digital security firm on if they plan to cooperate with the demands to turn over documents went un-retuned.
In late June, a series of Republicans in the state began backing away from the audit. Conservative talk-show host Mike Broomhead told CNN anchor Pamela Brown the GOP-led audit had "lost focus on being fair and unbiased." Republican Maricopa County recorder Stephen Richer remarked, "The Arizona Senate boarded this train without knowledge of where it was going, and I don't think it's going to a good place."
The audit, which has since concluded, additionally took a wild turn in June after the large quantities of voter data was transported to a "secret" lab in Montana to be "forensically evaluated" by a third-party firm.
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