Arizona Vote Review Being Financed by Trump Supporters

Politics|Arizona ballot reappraisal is being financed by Trump supporters.

• July 29, 2021, 10:34 a.m. ET

A reappraisal of 2020 predetermination ballots formed successful Arizona’s largest county, billed arsenic strictly nonpartisan erstwhile Republicans successful the Arizona State Senate ordered it precocious past year, has been financed astir wholly by supporters of erstwhile President Donald J. Trump, according to a connection released precocious Wednesday by the backstage steadfast overseeing the review.

The firm, Cyber Ninjas, said that it had collected much than $5.7 cardinal from 5 pro-Trump organizations for the wide disparaged review, successful summation to $150,000 that the State Senate had allotted for the project. An Arizona region tribunal had ordered the sources of the audit’s backing released aft Republicans successful the Senate resisted making them public.

The reappraisal of 2.1 cardinal ballots successful Maricopa County, location to Phoenix and astir 80 percent of the state’s population, has covered lone votes past November for president and for the state’s 2 seats successful the United States Senate, each of which were won by Democrats. The president of the State Senate, Karen Fann, said this week that results of the audit should beryllium released adjacent month.

Ms. Fann and different senators said the recount, whose findings person nary authorization to alteration the winners of immoderate race, was needed to reassure supporters of Mr. Trump that the ballot was reasonably conducted. But the effort has travel nether increasing onslaught successful the aftermath of disclosures that the main enforcement of Cyber Ninjas and different purported experts progressive successful the reappraisal had ties to the “stop the steal” question spawned by Mr. Trump’s baseless claims of predetermination fraud.

Election experts person called the recount amateurish and error-ridden, and ridiculed its efforts to verify allegations by conspiracy theorists that fake ballots could beryllium identified by traces of bamboo fibers oregon invisible watermarks. One Republican legislator withdrew his backing of the effort successful May, calling it an embarrassment, and a 2nd legislator accused Ms. Fann past week of mismanaging the process, and said its results could not beryllium trusted.

It had been evident since the reappraisal began successful April that supporters of Mr. Trump were some donating wealth to the effort and recruiting volunteers to enactment connected it. But the sources and size of the donations had not been disclosed until Wednesday.

According to the Cyber Ninjas statement, the largest donation, $3.25 million, was made by a recently created group, America Project, led by Patrick M. Byrne, the erstwhile main enforcement of the Overstock.com website and a salient proponent of mendacious claims that the November predetermination was rigged.

Mr. Byrne resigned his station astatine Overstock successful 2019 aft it was disclosed that helium had an intimate narration with Maria Butina, a gun-rights activistic who was jailed successful 2018 arsenic an unregistered overseas cause for Russia and aboriginal deported. He aboriginal said helium had contributed $500,000 to the Arizona review, and produced a movie featuring the Cyber Ninjas main executive, Doug Logan, that alleged that the November predetermination was fraudulent.

The connection said that different pro-Trump group, America’s Future, contributed $976,514 to the review. An further $605,000 came from Voices and Votes, a radical organized by Christina Bobb, an anchor for the pro-Trump tv web One America News, who solicited donations for the reappraisal portion covering it.