A lawyer facing criminal charges for illegally accessing Michigan voting machines after the 2020 election was arrested Monday after a hearing in a separate case in Federal Court in Washington, DC.
Stefanie Lambert was arrested by U.S. Marshals after a hearing on possible sanctions against her for releasing confidential emails from Dominion Voting Systems, the target of conspiracy theories about former President Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss. Lambert obtained the Dominion emails representing Patrick Byrne, a prominent funder of election conspiracy theorists who is being sued by Dominion for defamation.
In a statement, the Marshals’ office said Lambert was arrested on “local charges.” Earlier this month, a Michigan judge issued an arrest warrant for Lambert after she missed a hearing in her case, in which she is charged with four felonies for accessing voting machines in a search for evidence of a conspiracy theory against Trump. Lambert had previously unsuccessfully sued to overturn Trump’s loss in Michigan.
Earlier Monday, Lambert had acknowledged passing Dominion Voting Systems’ records to “law enforcement.” He then attached an affidavit that included some of the leaked emails and was signed by Dar Leaf, a county sheriff in northern Michigan who investigated false claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election, to a filing of his own case. in Michigan. The rest of the documents were posted to an account in Leaf’s name on X, the social platform formally known as Twitter.
Leaf did not respond to requests for comment. Lambert’s attorney, Daniel Hartman, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Byrne wrote in a text that he didn’t know if Lambert had been arrested, “but if she was, I respect her even more and she can raise her rate for me.”
Lambert maintained that the Dominion documents obtained under discovery were evidence of “crimes” and should be disclosed.
Byrne wrote in
Dominion on Friday filed a motion demanding that Lambert be removed from the Byrne case for violating a protective order that U.S. District Court Judge Moxila A. Upadhyaya had placed in case documents. She said Lambert’s revelation had triggered a new round of threats toward the company, which has been at the center of elaborate conspiracy theories about Trump’s loss.
“These actions should shock the conscience,” Dominion wrote in its motion to disqualify Lambert. “They reflect a complete disregard for the orders of this Court, let alone the safety of Dominion employees.”
Upadhyaya, during a hearing Monday, said he had scheduled a later hearing to determine whether it was appropriate to impose sanctions against Lambert or remove her from the case.
Dominion filed several defamation lawsuits against those who spread conspiracy theories blaming its election team for Trump’s loss in 2020. Fox News settled the most prominent of these cases for $787 million last year.
Dominion’s lawsuit against Byrne is one of several the company has filed against prominent election deniers, including MyPillow founder Mike Lindell and attorney Sidney Powell.