Late Sunday night, a federal judge ordered three Georgia counties to preserve electronic files on their voting machines as part of a court filing that was made by Sidney Powell, a former member of Trump’s Elite Special Force legal team, Politico reports.
The suit alleges that the machines, owned by Dominion Voting Machines of Denver, Colorado, reflected wildly inaccurate counts because they were designed to flip votes to President-elect Joe Biden from lame duck president Donald Trump. There is no evidence to support the claim.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Batten Sr., a George W. Bush appointee, issued the directive as a way of preserving evidence until he reviews a motion by the defendants, including Georgia’s Republican Governor Brian Kemp and Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, which will be filed Wednesday afternoon.
“Defendants are hereby enjoined and restrained from altering, destroying, or erasing, or allowing the alteration, destruction, or erasure of, any software or data on any Dominion voting machine in Cobb, Gwinnett, and Cherokee Counties,” directed Batten.
Batten’s order also directs the state to provide to the plaintiffs a copy of its contract with Dominion.
Some confusion arose from the judge’s order after another of the attorneys suing the state, L. Lin Wood, posted a false claim on Twitter that the lawyers had won the right to inspect all voting machines in the state. Wood had posted draft orders, not the ones Batten finally issued.
“What???” Wood posted on Twitter. “Machines are owned by State & @GaSecofState administers state laws on elections. Why are GA officials determined to wipe these machines clean….Your guess is as good as mine.”
Batten explained in issuing his directive that he could not order all counties to preserve the files on the voting machines because the plaintiffs did name all counties as defendants in the suit.
Batten also certified his directive, meaning that the defendants can immediately appeal his order to the 11th District Court.