Election Day Cyber Intrusion Investigation Details Revealed

On November 3, 2020, while voters cast their ballots, an FBI investigation into a cyber breach at Maricopa County’s election website began. This incident was shrouded in secrecy until recently when John Solomon from the White House uncovered previously hidden documents.

According to a letter from FBI Director Kash Patel, an individual managed to illicitly extract around 633,000 voter files from the Maricopa County Recorder’s website. Alarmingly, this breach was way too simple.

Among those records, about 930 contained sensitive information—details about victims of domestic violence, judges, and law enforcement personnel. The person responsible admitted to the crime but faced no charges.

Further investigation revealed that Maricopa itself acknowledged its website was “poorly written.” Although it was intended that accessing a voter’s file would require authentication, the intruder discovered that he could manipulate the voter ID numbers in the web address to view others’ records effortlessly.

This wasn’t merely a random mishap. During an FBI interview, the hacker described how he first tested the system and continuously honed a PowerShell script, systematically gathering records on a massive scale until a firewall was finally implemented around November 2. His own estimation ranged from one to two million records harvested, referring to his hacking as a hobby.

Interestingly, he even contemplated reporting the breach to the news media but decided against it, thinking it would lead to chaos during the election. He then erased his hard drives and cleaned his cloud account.

However, the FBI managed to track him down. A search warrant revealed his devices and accounts, evidence of the script he had built, and the fact that he had destroyed crucial data. Ultimately, investigators found no indications that a foreign entity had directed his actions. Yet, the real issue lie elsewhere.

The aftermath of the incident raised eyebrows. The FBI presented the case, complete with confession, script evidence, and stolen files, to multiple attorney offices—including the U.S. Attorney for Arizona and the Maricopa County Attorney—all of which declined to pursue any action. This chain of refusals ended with no prosecutions, and the FBI officially closed the case in 2023.

Arizona law categorizes unauthorized entry into government computers as a felony. The evidence was clearly there: the hacker, his confession, the script, and the records—but all four prosecutors involved chose not to act.

In stark contrast, look at my own experience alongside Steve Bannon. Contempt of Congress, a misdemeanor, had historically never led to charges against a White House adviser. Yet, both of us faced prosecution from a politically motivated Justice Department.

Why this disparity in treatment? Maricopa County became central to the election disputes of 2020. Just nine days post-election, DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, along with partners, deemed it “the most secure in American history.”

This statement clashes with newly released CISA findings that show how their teams repeatedly breached election networks effortlessly since 2019, exposing significant vulnerabilities.

This contradiction raises a pressing question: was the claim of being “the most secure” a genuine technical assessment or a calculated statement aimed to quell doubts surrounding the most disputed election in recent history?

The released documents do not provide an answer but underscore the need for a thorough inquiry, especially as concerns about ballot box security grow as November approaches.

It is essential to unveil the declinations. Every prosecutor involved should clarify their reasoning, releasing documents explaining why an admitted breach into voter files didn’t warrant charges. The public deserves transparency.

Additionally, every signer of the “most secure election” declaration should take accountability. In hindsight, claiming such security looks far from the reality in Maricopa County.

The implications of the government’s message are glaring: break into an election system, steal extensive voter records, erase evidence, and the government absolves the hacker. But defying a congressional subpoena? That earns prison time. Both Bannon and I paid the price, along with significant fines.

This situation reflects neither justice nor integrity in the electoral process.