Judge floats trial date for Attorney Stefanie Lambert in voting machine tampering case

Oakland County Circuit Judge Jeffrey S. Matis has proposed a trial date for attorney Stefanie Lambert Junttila, who was one of the three individuals indicted as the result of an investigation into tampering with voting machines. 

Lambert Junttila was charged alongside former state Rep. Daire Rendon (R-Lake City) and attorney and former Republican attorney general candidate Matt Deperno for allegedly accessing and tampering with voting tabulators following the 2020 election, in which President Joe Biden defeated former President Donald Trump. 

Lambert was previously arrested in Washington, D.C. as the result of a bench warrant issued after she failed to attend a show cause hearing on March 8.

While both DePerno and Rendon’s cases have been remanded to district court for a preliminary exam, Lambert’s attorney, Dan Hartman, told Matis they would move forward with scheduling a trial and would not be pursuing the same route as the other two cases. 

Hartman was retained as Lambert Junttila’s attorney following a “breakdown in the attorney-client relationship” with her previous attorney, Michael J. Smith. Hartman recently served as counsel for the Michigan Republican Party when Kristina Karamo was chair. 

Hartman initially proposed a date after Sept. 15 for the trial, citing potential missing items in discovery and plans to file pretrial motions alongside other legal matters he had scheduled for later in the summer, including a June 10 trial on the Michigan Republican Party’s leadership dispute. 

Special Prosecutor D.J. Hilson told Matis they would need 30 to 45 days to prepare for trial. 

While Hilson estimated a trial for the case could be held within two weeks, Hartman said he expected the trial would be closer to three to four weeks in length. 

Matis ultimately proposed a trial date on July 15, saying they should be able to finish the trial in the time the court has allotted, while providing Hartman time to get up to speed on the case, file motions and have those motions heard. 

However Hartman objected to the trial date. He cited potential scheduling concerns with another multi week trial that was scheduled to begin on July 29, for which he needed to be present for pretrial motions on July 26.  

Matis has set another pretrial date for May 2, where he said he will address the trial date if necessary and that he would need further information from the Judge in Hartman’s July trial to see if there would be any issue.