A new video reveals that a group of forensics experts spent hours at a county elections office in Georgia copying sensitive data and software from voting machines.
The video, obainted by The Washington Post, contradicts testimony of Cathy Latham, an ally of former president Donald Trump, who had previously said in sworn testimony that she briefly stopped by the office in Coffee County and spoke with a junior official about an unrelated matter, for “five minutes at most”, according to a transcript of her deposition.
But footage shows that Ms Latham visited the office twice on 7 January 2021 for a total of four hours and that she greeted businessman Scott Hall and led him to the back area to meet with experts.
Video footage shows she moved in and out of an area where experts from forensics firm SullivanStrickler worked. Ms Latham worked as a member of the Georgia Republican Party’s executive committee and was a former chairwoman of the Coffee County GOP.
She was also one of the so-called “fake electors” who signed unauthorised certificates to keep Mr Trump in office after he became the first Republican to lose Georgia since 1992. But her attorneys defended her for making contradictory remarks.
“Failing to accurately remember the details of events from almost two years ago is not lying,” they said. Attorneys Robert Cheeley and Holly Pierson wrote in a filing that Ms Latham’s actions were “actually less of a breach or criminal undertaking and more of a permissible exercise of the County Elections Board’s authority” and that “the parties involved plainly believed that they had the authority to authorize it and the authority to do it, and that belief seems to be at least reasonable and likely accurate, which negates any possible criminal intent.”
Georgia’s Bureau of Investigation and a probe in Fulton County, Georgia are investigating the incident in Coffee County. The Fulton County probe is an investigation into Mr Trump’s actions to interfere with the 2020 election.
