I suspect the records and documents have been lost in a tragic boating accident.
Like Natalie Wood.
Yeah, and I even forgot about this one.
I mean, the last few times I’ve listed all the ways Republicans tried to cheat this election, this didn’t make the cut. It didn’t come to mind.
Hiring “Cyber Ninjas”, run by open Republican supporters, to do an audit after two hand recounts and two audits by actual accredited organizations found nothing wasn’t bad enough to stick in my mind in the list of fucked up shit that happened since Nov 2020.
That’s where we are.
They sent those records to some kind of laboratory that was actually a remote cabin in a forest in Montana or some such place, which then regrettably burned to the ground. 
I heard about the cabin in Montana, but did it actually burn down?
No fire AFAIK; I think that’s predictive for why Cyber Ninjas and CyFIR CEO Ben Cotton (who owns the labcabin) won’t be “able” to give back the records they stole.
They’ll lie and say there was a fire and, if necessary, actually set a fire (and try to claim the insurance money too).
They’ll pay someone to set fire to the cabin, and then he’ll take off with the money.
No, I just made up that part. 
But it might as well be true for all we know. I’m not aware of any follow-up, at least not in any public media, as to what that was all about or what happened to it all.
That thing about the records going to a back-woods place certainly raised a lot of eyebrows when it came out all over the news, and you’d think the investigators of the investigators would have been all over it. But there was never any further public follow-up that I ever heard.
Has anyone ever seen anything more on that?
I have not and it is one of the things that I am trying to keep track of.
As a matter of curiosity, what would a judge do if documents he had ordered turned over were reported to have been destroyed in a fire in a facility controlled by the people who had been refusing to provide the documents?
Fine them all $50,000 per day for the rest of eternity, let us hope.
Those records in the cabin are not what the judge ordered turned over.
Cyber Ninjas is supposed to turn over all e-mails, texts, memos, and all other communication with Republicans or any funding partners or any document that concerns the audit in any manner. Those voting records are copies (and as far as I understand electronic- the information could all be contained on a single thumb drive). Once they were given to the auditors it was assumed they would misuse the private information to benefit the Republican Party.
What the court ordered Cyber Ninjas to turn over was all of their communication with anyone concerning the “audit”. That is where the Arizona Republic (the ones who brought the suit) hope to find the smoking gun and how hard CN is fighting against turning the records over seems to suggest that there are smoking guns to be found. The paper seems particularly interested in communication with any Republicans other than the State Senate which hired them. I believe they have tips that those texts and e-mails show a conspiracy of some sort.
The entire argument from Cyber Ninjas was that they are a private company and do not have to abide by the law that regulates government work which requires complete transparency. They lost in court and have no further recourse so must legally hand over their entire communication history. The court found that when you take government contracts you become a government contractor and are subject to the rules. But being the least competent branch of the gang who couldn’t shoot straight, I am sure there is all kinds of incriminating information in that history.
Thanks.
Yes, thank you! Sometimes news stories make my eyes glaze over - you stated it in a very clear and organized way. Much like Rachel Maddow!
Except without the annoying teasing preamble she usually employs.
Hmm. I don’t find that annoying, as it generally connects the present to the past in an interesting way.
Agree! She often brings new information to me about events I actually lived through. Yeah, she can get a rambly, but it’s always interesting rambling that leads to an interesting connection.
Do you want to know who is rambly? Who rambles on and on? Who keeps leading up to the question, but then continues to ramble on instead of getting to it? Do you have any guesses who that may be, who may ramble on interminably rather than getting to the point? Who is this rambling person, the rambliest of ramblers?
We’ll get to that after this break. Stay tuned.
I don’t watch ANY of the talking heads, but I’m reading k9bfriender’s post with Tucker Carlson’s voice in my head. I assume they meant to be referencing Rachel Maddow, but it really applies to any of them. They all do a lot of JAQing off.
Hell, that’s how most reality shows work.
Maddow might be the worst though. Remember when she got hold of maybe two pages of one of Trump’s tax returns, which in fact said nothing very interesting, and it took 20 minutes of that constant blather to get to them?