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Nessel: Michigan election clerk withheld tabulator, ordered lawyer to illegally transmit data

By Jack Nissen
Published  May 8, 2024 9:02pm EDT
Crime and Public Safety
FOX 2 Detroit

LANSING, Mich. (FOX 2) - A former township clerk and her attorney were both charged in a 2020 election-related probe that found the 52-year-old public official withheld a voting tabulator from authorized people before directing her lawyer to illegally transmit the data.

Stephanie Scott, 52, who was employed as the Adams Township clerk during the alleged act, and Stefanie Lambert, a Michigan attorney who has aligned herself with former President Donald Trump and efforts to disrupt the 2020 election, were charged with several felonies, the attorney general announced Wednesday.

Scott ignored instructions from the Michigan Director of Elections to provide the township voting tabulator to an authorized vendor for maintenance and testing, Dana Nessel said in a news release. The tabulator was eventually seized by Michigan State Police after securing a search warrant.

Nessel contends Scott tasked Lambert with transmitting data from the township's electronic poll book, leading to her being charged with three felonies.

The charges for Scott includes:

  • One count of Using a Computer to Commit a Crime, a seven-year felony;
  • One count of Computers - Unauthorized Access, a five-year felony;
  • One count of Conspiracy to Commit the Offense of Computers -Unauthorized Access, a five-year felony;
  • One count of Misconduct in Office, a five-year felony;
  • One count of Concealing or Withholding a Voting Machine, a five-year felony; and
  • One count of Disobeying a Lawful Instruction or Order of the Secretary of State as Chief Election Officer, a 90-day misdemeanor

For Lambert, she's charged with:

  • One count of Using a Computer to Commit a Crime, a seven-year felony;
  • One count of Computers - Unauthorized Access, a five-year felony; and
  • One count of Conspiracy to Commit the Offense of Computers -Unauthorized Access, a five-year felony

"Ensuring election security and integrity stands as the cornerstone of our democracy," Nessel said in a statement. "When elected officials and their proxies use their positions to promote baseless conspiracies, show blatant disregard for voter privacy, and break the law in the process, it undermines the very essence of the democratic process. Those who engage in such reckless conduct must be held accountable for their actions."