EXCLUSIVE: Maricopa County Officials Claim They DID NOT Delete Elections Data – They Just Archived It and Withheld It from the Senate Auditors

 

Maricopa County BOS Chairman Jack Sellers Statement – May 14, 2021

Maricopa County Elections Officials recently admitted that data was deleted in the 2020 election and they’ve already called their media allies to redact the statement.

The Gateway Pundit reported that the County finally admitted to deleting data when being questioned by US Rep. Andy Biggs.

On Monday, Senate President Karen Fann shared an article by RTM analyzing the statement by Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates where he admits to deleting files in what looked like a Freudian slip.

He attempted to recover the fumble by saying that the deleted files were archived and that the deleted files did not fall under the request for “all the records related to the election”.

Neither he nor Board Chairman Jack Sellers would confirm that deleting the files was the standard operating procedure.

Supervisor Bill Gates responded to Fann’s tweet above by tweeting:

Fact check: False. https://apnews.com/article/fact-checking-117903951758

He couldn’t even get the rating right – the AP fact-checker rated a different claim, “partly false”.

AP: CLAIM: “Maricopa County admits they DELETED and moved the election data to hide it from auditors AFTER they got a subpoena.”

AP’S ASSESSMENT: Partly false. Arizona’s largest county did not admit deleting and moving election data to hide it from auditors. The county has explained it was necessary to archive and move the data because there was not space for it to be stored on the server indefinitely.

THE FACTS: Weeks after a cybersecurity firm presented flawed findings in a Republican-backed review of the 2020 election in Maricopa County, a U.S. House Oversight Committee hearing on the controversial election review on Thursday led to a new array of false claims online.

Twitter users shared one clip of Republican Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona questioning Republican Maricopa County Supervisors Bill Gates and Jack Sellers, along with baseless claims that the county made a shocking admission.

Here’s the truth.

1. Karen Fann does not suggest that the files were deleted to “hide it from auditors”. Fann stated the facts. This data was deleted after receiving a subpoena. 
2. Maricopa County did not provide access to this subpoenaed information.  Therefore it is accurate to interpret this as the County’s efforts to hide the data from auditors. 
3. The fact-checker uses the term ‘Indefinitely’. Federal law states that all elections records must be kept for 22 months. Deleting these files was a crime but the County attempts to cover for themselves to suggest they did it so they could have space on these machines for a March election.  It’s likely these files were corrupted or lost in the process and it’s suspect at best that the County didn’t know this.
4. Bill Gates’ fact check of this claim was incorrect and his broadcast of it could be accurately interpreted as a lie. 

Maricopa County even went so far as to say it would be a crime for them to delete files.

 

Why weren’t these files maintained for 22 months in compliance with federal law? 

Why didn’t they deliver this information as subpoenaed?

Why is Bill Gates now acting as if he did not say the files were deleted?

Watch the clip from the Congressional hearing where they deny that the archived data was part of the subpoena for all elections records.