Election denier who evaded Michigan court for 11 days: ‘I know too much’

• Washington, D.C. judge releases pro-Trump attorney Stefanie Lambert on bond, orders her to return to Michigan 
• A bench warrant was issued for Lambert on March 7 after she failed to appear for an Oakland County court hearing
• Lambert is accused of orchestrating a plan to improperly gain access to Michigan voting machines following the 2020 election

A metro Detroit attorney and ally of Donald Trump accused of illegally tampering with voting machines must return to Michigan and turn herself in following an arrest on a bench warrant in Washington, D.C., a judge ordered Tuesday. 

Stefanie Lambert (Juntilla) was arrested Monday by the U.S. Marshals Service and charged as a fugitive, 11 days after an Oakland County judge issued a bench warrant when she failed to appear for a hearing ahead of her Michigan trial.

Lambert was in Washington, D.C. acting as a defense attorney for fellow 2020 election denier and businessman Patrick Byrne in a defamation suit brought by Dominion Voting Systems, a global manufacturer of voting machines and tabulators.

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Judge Heide Herrmann of Washington, D.C.’s Superior Court on Tuesday released Lambert on a $10,000 unsecured bond, which she would be required to pay if she continues to evade court hearings. The court also set an April 24 extradition hearing in the event her warrant isn’t resolved.

“I would encourage you to…go immediately by (Wednesday) to turn yourself in,” Herrmann said. “As long as there is still a warrant out for your arrest, you can continue to be arrested over and over again.”

Dan Hartman, Lambert’s attorney in the voting machine tampering case and former legal counsel for the Michigan Republican Party, argued Lambert “is not and never was a fugitive from justice.” 

“We are looking forward to her safe return to Michigan, and her day in court,” he told Bridge Michigan.

Lambert’s arrest is the latest in an ongoing prosecution of those who allegedly broke the law in their efforts to undermine Michigan’s 2020 presidential election results.

In her fight to discredit the contest, Lambert “seems to be entirely repudiating the rule of law,” Chris Thomas, a former Michigan elections director, told Bridge Michigan.

“These folks just want to keep beating the drum, and there's nothing there," Thomas said. “Apparently it's too lucrative or too much fun to continue to spread the conspiracies.”

For her part, Lambert insists she is only being targeted because, “I just know too much.”

“And I have too much evidence,” Lambert said Monday during a live audio conversation on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

Who is Stefanie Lambert? 

Lambert is a Detroit attorney who has worked on 2020 election cases across the country and has unsuccessfully claimed that fraud cost President Donald Trump the election. 

Numerous audits and investigations have found no such fraud. 

Among her Michigan cases, Lambert worked on attorney Sidney Powell’s so-called Kraken case that sought to block certification of Michigan’s 2020 presidential election. 

Lambert also represented Barry County Sheriff Dar Leaf in a failed lawsuit that alleged “massive” fraud in the election as well as former Adams Township Clerk Stephanie Scott. She refused to perform routine maintenance on her voting equipment ahead of the 2022 election and was later recalled and replaced by voters. 

A federal judge in 2021 sanctioned Lambert for the Kraken suit, but an appeals court panel reversed the penalties, ruling she had done only “minimal” work on the case. The Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission subsequently withdrew a professional misconduct claim against her. 

Why she was arrested

Lambert’s arrest in Washington, D.C. came after she missed a March 7 hearing before Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Jeffery Matis. 

Lambert, along with former Republican Attorney General candidate Matthew DePerno and former state Rep. Daire Rendon, face multiple felony charges based on allegations from the attorney general’s office that they "orchestrated a coordinated plan to gain access” to voting machines in multiple jurisdictions.

In a failed attempt to prove the machines were rigged against Trump, the group allegedly took five ballot tabulators from Barry, Roscommon and Missaukee counties to Oakland County. There, police contend the machines were "broken into" for "tests," according to court filings. 

Lambert’s jury trial is expected to start April 1. The hearing she skipped, which led to the bench warrant, wasn’t about the merits of the case but about her failure to comply with court requirements that she be fingerprinted and provide a DNA sample. 

Lambert had repeatedly challenged the requirement, arguing the order violated her privacy and due process rights. 

In court filings, Lambert indicated her absence at the hearing was caused by a miscommunication between her and her former legal counsel. Prosecutors countered that Lambert “has demonstrated a complete unwillingness to comply with the court’s orders” and can’t be trusted. 

Lambert's arrest and other recent legal actions across the country are "a necessary part of our process to restore confidence in our election system which has been under attack constantly," said David Becker, executive director of the nonprofit Center for Election Innovation & Research and author of "The Big Truth: Upholding Democracy in the Age of 'The Big Lie.'"

"It is important for the legal system to work, and its process," Becker said. "We're seeing that happen now with people who have allegedly committed acts that violated oaths of office, violated their duties as lawyers, attacked the functions of government and valid elections."

A new Dominion conspiracy

Lambert was arrested Monday following a separate federal hearing in Washington, D.C, where Dominion Voting Systems alleges she leaked confidential court records about their election machines. As a result, the company is attempting to disqualify her as the attorney for Byrne, who Dominion sued for defamation following the 2020 election.

Lambert and Byrne have defended her decision to release confidential court documents to Leaf, the Barry County sheriff and a fellow election denier, who has spent years investigating the 2020 election but has been denied search warrants by a local GOP prosecutor for lack of evidence.

Among other things, Lambert and Byrne claim the Dominion documents are evidence of "foreign interference in a U.S. election" by Serbian nationals because some of the election equipment company's employees are apparently based in that country and exchanged emails in that language.

Lambert had a "duty" to breach confidentiality rules and give the documents to law enforcement, much like she would have if she had "found a severed head" in court evidence, Byrne wrote this week on X.

Dominion attorneys have accused Byrne and Lambert of leaping to a “xenophobic conclusion that any email from non-US-based Dominion personnel is conclusive evidence of criminal activity."

Global conspiracy claims are nothing new for Byrne and Lambert, who have repeatedly worked together since the 2020 election, with the former funding the latter's legal battles in various states.

Joining Lambert by Zoom for a Michigan town hall meeting last year, Byrne claimed the state is on the "front lines" of a sprawling effort by China, Iran, Venezuela and Mexican drug cartels to spur a civil war in the U.S. and take over the country once 90 percent of Americans have already died.

“The very people that have gone after me for sanctions in Michigan, a bar grievance and then sham criminal charges, are now trying to remove me from these cases,” she said during a live audio conversation on X.  

‘Constitutional sheriff’ claims

Leaf, the Barry County sheriff, was initially identified as a suspect in the Michigan tabulator tampering probe and is now fighting a subpoena from prosecutors ordering him to release material from his investigation into the 2020 presidential election. 

In an affidavit included in Oakland County court filings, Leaf argued complying with the subpoena would compromise his work. 

On Monday, a social media account created under Leaf’s name and bearing his photo posted more than 2,000 pages of Dominion company emails and other documents listed as "confidential." 

The account also posted a letter to Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, purportedly from Leaf, claiming "the United States has allowed a scenario where potentially Serbian military criminals are running our elections and remotely entering our election equipment."

Leaf did not reply to requests from Bridge asking him to confirm whether he was behind the release of the Dominion documents. 

As Bridge previously reported, Leaf first contemplated seizing voting machines about a month after the 2020 election, a plan an attorney working for him discussed with key Trump allies, including Powell and former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.

Leaf is among a handful of self-described “constitutional sheriffs” in Michigan who contend they are the highest level of government authority and can disregard laws they deem unconstitutional.