Senate ‘audit’ leaders Doug Logan and Ben Cotton are facing a Michigan criminal probe

Doug Logan, the CEO of the Florida-based firm hired by the Arizona Senate to conduct the partisan “audit” of the 2020 Maricopa County election, is under investigation for allegedly illegally obtaining Michigan voting machines and breaking into them. 

The office of Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat, has petitioned the Michigan Prosecuting Attorneys Coordinating Council to name a special prosecutor to investigate Logan and others who falsely believed the election was stolen from Donald Trump and then set out to gather evidence by gaining access to ballot tabulators. Other targets of the probe include Arizona “audit” subcontractor Ben Cotton, the founder of the digital forensics company CyFIR, of CyFir who was supposedly in a hotel room in early 2021 when the breach of the tabulation equipment allegedly took place. 

The request for a special prosecutor is part of an ongoing investigation that also includes the Trump-endorsed candidate expected to run against Nessel, Matthew DePerno, who has said that Logan and surfer turned conspiracy theorist Conan Hayes worked with him on the flawed Antrim County report. 

The petition filed Friday asking for a special prosecutor alleges that DePerno and two others, Stefanie Lambert Juntilla and GOP state Rep. Daire Rendon, “orchestrated a coordinated plan to gain access to voting tabulators” used in Roscommon, Barry County and Missaukee counties. 

Lambert Juntilla is DePerno’s law partner and was previously sanctioned by a federal judge for her role in bringing “frivolous” lawsuits that sought to overturn the 2020 election that former President Donald Trump lost to President Joe Biden.

The petition says that DePerno was present when Cotton, Logan, James Penrose and Jeffery Lenberg “broke into the tabulators and performed ‘tests’ on the equipment.” Penrose has been listed as a former NSA analyst and advisor to Trump, according to promotional material for DePerno events reviewed by Reuters. Lenberg has no election experience and has worked on another “audit” effort in New Mexico along with election fraud believer and COVID-19 denier David Clements. 

The petition follows an investigation begun earlier this year by Michigan State Police and the AG’s office which was requested by Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson after her office received reports that an unnamed third party was able to access vote tabulator components and technology in Roscommon County. The investigation later included Rendon after two township clerks in Roscommon County said she requested access to tabulators.

DePerno has denied being in the room on social media and in a radio interview, claiming that the investigation is politically motivated. 

Logan made a similar claim Monday morning, taking to the encrypted messaging app Telegram to respond. 

“It is no surprise to me that in this time of corrupt American politics, and a few months before the election; that a politician, Dana Nessel, would misuse her position of power for her own political gain,” Logan said. “The American people are smarter than this, and this will backfire.”

Logan and DePerno have been linked long before the Arizona audit and continued to be so during and after, as well. 

Election Integrity Funds for the American Republic and its sister group are linked to DePerno, who rose to fame filing a failed lawsuit alleging massive fraud in Michigan’s Antrim County. Logan and Cotton were listed in DePerno’s lawsuit and the aforementioned group contributed $280,000 to the Arizona “audit” effort.