The FBI is investigating an attempted election data breach at a local Ohio elections office linked to MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s election conspiracies, The Washington Post reports.
The FBI and state investigators are probing an attempt to breach an Ohio county’s election network from the office of John Hamercheck, the Republican president of the Lake County Board of Commissioners.
Sources told the Post that Hamercheck used his swipe card to enter an office where an unauthorized private laptop was connected to the country’s network. Though officials say no sensitive data was breached, routine network traffic data obtained in the breach was later featured at Lindell’s “cyber symposium” pushing debunked election fraud lies in August.
Investigators led by Ohio’s Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose believe a “government official appears to have facilitated the attempted breach of the election network in Lake County,” a spokeswoman told the Post.
The FBI confirmed it is investigating the incident.
Hamercheck denies:
Hamercheck at a public board meeting on Tuesday alleged that he was the target of “much false or misleading information.”
“To my knowledge,” Hamercheck said, “there was never an attempt to access or breach the Lake County Board of Elections computer network that day.”
He said that he has not been interviewed by investigators and vowed to release more information “as soon as we are finished gathering and verifying the appropriate materials.”
Hamercheck before the attempted breach discussed election conspiracy theories with Douglas Frank, Lindell’s sidekick.
Second official involved:
The investigation comes days after the FBI raided the home of Colorado Election Clerk Tina Peters and three others, including Lauren Boebert’s former campaign manager.
A judge earlier this year banned Peters from overseeing elections in Mesa County after state investigators found that she shut off surveillance at her office and allowed an unauthorized person to access Dominion voting system servers that were later leaked online and featured at Lindell’s August event.
The FBI is said to be investigating potential wire fraud and conspiracy.
