Judge denies Cyber Ninjas' request to limit release of public records in AZ 'audit' case

A judge rejected efforts by the contractor who led the "audit" of 2020 election results in Arizona to restrict the release of public records related to the effort.

More than a year after Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan was ordered to make public every text and email, lawyers for the defunct cybersecurity firm asked the court to keep secret records dated after June 2, 2021.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Bradley Astrowsky on Thursday said no.

"There were already rulings on this issue concerning the scope of the records on which the Cyber Ninjas and the Logans need to respond," he said. "I'm not going to reinvent the wheel, and I see no good cause to reconsider those rulings made by other judicial officers in this case."

Astrowsky said he is still weighing if Logan can withhold thousands of messages related to the audit that he claims are privileged and exempt from public view. He asked lawyers on both sides to file motions.

The ruling came at the start of a hearing over the Arizona Senate's decision to withhold about 1,000 records that it, too, claims are protected from disclosure. The judge said he would make a ruling expected to be made public early next week.

Public records lawsuits against Cyber Ninjas and the Senate by The Arizona Republic in 2021 have forced the disclosure of thousands of records, including text messages sent and received by Logan.

Earlier ruling: State Senate can keep some election 'audit' docs secret, Arizona Supreme Court says

Texts show Logan was involved in a partisan plot to overturn the 2020 election when he was tapped by the Arizona Senate to lead a hand count of 2.1 million ballots cast in Maricopa County.

The records also show he was unable to quantify the results of his hand count, and privately admitted that he couldn't make sense of the vote tallies that hundreds of volunteers spent two months recording at Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

Logan continues to defy court orders by refusing to turn over thousands of records. A judge in January 2022 fined Cyber Ninjas $50,000 a day until the company complied with the order to turn over all audit-related material. The Arizona Supreme Court affirmed the daily fine in July 2022, rejecting Logan's request to rescind it. The fines to the company now would total more than $27 million.

Logan's lawyer, David Hardy of Tucson, made no mention of the fines in his motion or during Thursday's hearing.

Logan, in a motion filed last month, asked Astrowsky to pin the release of records to The Republic's public records request in June 2021, arguing records that didn't exist at the time should be excluded from release.

A review of Logan's texts shows the messages Logan has fought hardest to keep private came after June 21, 2021, when the most critical moments of the election review unfolded: the end of the hand count; Logan's struggle to add up the tick marks on tally sheets and his scattershot attempts to come up with an alternative way to quantify results; and his Sept. 24, 2021, report to the Senate.

The Republic is also challenging Logan's claims that he has the right to withhold certain messages because they are privileged.

Cyber Ninjas "continues to withhold scores of messages under claims that they contain 'proprietary' information, discuss employee issues, or are purportedly 'not related' to the audit," lawyers for The Republic wrote. "Those assertions are not credible."

The lawyers said Logan's past claims about specific messages being unrelated to the audit were false. Among those were texts concerning congressional inquiries into the audit itself, lawyers said.

Unreleased: Thousands of texts from Trump allies stay hidden in Arizona a year after judge's order on 'audit'

Logan's lawyers told the court they have attempted to cooperate in the release of records. They said The Republic for months raised no objections over the withheld records until May, when it issued a 16-page letter.

"We have delivered to the Senate a thousand pages of contracts and financial data, over 5,000 emails, 418 voicemails, and other data. What remains for resolution are the Signals texts, of which we have disclosed over 17,000," Logan's lawyers wrote.

Signal is an encrypted text messaging app.

Logan's lawyers said he had to devise a way and create a software program enabling Logan to download the messages in a computer database format, after which they were able to release another 5,800 messages.

An independent review of Logan's texts last month identified missing messages, long gaps in communications and conversations that dropped in midstream.

'Our numbers are screwy': Cyber Ninjas CEO admits he couldn't tally hand count of ballots

A report by a trio of nationally recognized data analysts known as The Audit Guys concluded that Logan had not only improperly redacted thousands of texts but had eliminated some messages.

Of 2,823 redacted messages, 2,159 involve people in the "Stop the Steal" movement, The Audit Guys found. Many were allies of former President Donald Trump who had roles in the audit. And in some cases, Logan's side of the conversation was missing from the texts.

The Audit Guys pointed to a series of texts Logan had with Trump lawyer Christina Bobb, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, retired Army Col. Phil Waldron and Trump supporter Seth Keshel between January and February 2021.

What happened during the Arizona 'audit'?

Senate Republicans in 2021 announced they would commission a hand count of every ballot cast in Maricopa County to address claims the election had been stolen from Trump. The Senate subpoenaed the ballots and other election material from the county.

Then-Senate President Karen Fann hired the Cyber Ninjas after privately communicating with Waldron. Although neither Logan nor his company had election auditing experience, Fann at the time said he was "well qualified" and "well experienced."

More revelations: Arizona 'audit' leader traded messages with dozens of 'Stop the Steal' partisans, texts show

The review was supposed to take a few weeks and cost taxpayers $150,000. It ultimately took about two months and so far has cost Arizona more than $5 million.

While Logan confirmed President Joe Biden's victory in Arizona, his report to the Senate focused on so-called anomalies that raised doubts about the process. It allowed Trump allies to insist the vote was compromised, instilling distrust in voting machines and encouraging partisan calls for paper ballot tabulations, hand recounts and "audits."

Former county attorney calls for criminal investigations

Former Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley in June called for state and county authorities to investigate Logan's refusal to release records for potential criminal charges.

Romley, a Republican, said this is not a partisan issue. He said the messages Logan has so far released suggest Cyber Ninjas might have perpetrated fraud by taking millions for an election review that appeared to have a predetermined outcome and could not be completed.

"The most obvious case is the failure to obey court orders," Romley told The Republic. "But the text messages themselves raise the specter that there could be corruption here."

Far reaching: Why what happened in 2021 Arizona election 'audit' still matters

Robert Anglen is an investigative reporter for The Republic. Reach him at robert.anglen@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8694. Follow him on Twitter @robertanglen.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Judge denies Cyber Ninjas' request to limit release of public records