Dunario Cherry/Reuters
Stephanie Lambert listens in a Detroit courtroom on October 20, 2022.
CNN
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A judge on Tuesday released Stephanie Lambert, a pro-Trump lawyer on a warrant related to her indictment on election fraud charges, from a Washington, D.C., jail after she promised to immediately return to Michigan and surrender to authorities. .
D.C. Superior Court Judge Heide Herman released Lambert on $10,000 bail, which she must post unless she immediately turns herself in to Michigan authorities. She remained handcuffed and her ankles restrained during the brief hearing in Washington, D.C.
The hearing came a day after Lambert's bizarre arrest in federal court in Washington, D.C. Shortly after she took part in a two-hour hearing in Dominion Voting Systems' defamation lawsuit against her client, former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne, for falsehoods related to the 2020 election, she turned to U.S. Marshals. Detained.
The hearing concerns the recent leak of internal Dominion emails obtained by Lambert through Byrne's representatives, which is still in the investigation stage.
But she was arrested on a warrant issued in Michigan for failing to appear for two recent hearings in another criminal case. She was indicted last year in connection with election fraud, one of several cases in swing states where Trump supporters tried to prove their claims of voter fraud.
A police affidavit for Lambert's arrest describes him as a “fugitive from Michigan,” according to court filings obtained by CNN, and a Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department officer said Tuesday that he was a “fugitive from Michigan.” He said the state had confirmed that she would be “extradited.”
At Lambert's hearing on Tuesday, Kevin Irving, the attorney representing Lambert, said “there was some confusion between her and her attorney” in Michigan, and that Lambert had attended two criminal hearings. He said a bench warrant was issued for his failure to attend the meeting.
“I don't think she was running away,” Irving said, adding that Lambert would “get in a car” and head to Michigan as soon as she was released.
Irving told the judge that Lambert was “here for the job,” referring to her role in the Dominion Burn case. She appeared to be wearing the same professional attire on Tuesday that she wore at Monday's defamation hearing.
Prosecutors said in court that they wanted Lambert to remain in custody and that Michigan authorities had informed him they were willing to come to Washington, D.C., to pick up Lambert. In releasing Lambert, the judge warned him that if he did not promptly surrender in Michigan, “he may continue to be arrested multiple times.”
Lambert declined to comment after leaving court Tuesday.
“We continue to encourage Ms. Lambert to turn herself in as soon as possible to satisfy the bench warrant issued by Oakland County Circuit Court, which remains unsatisfied,” Lambert said in a statement on charges of conspiracy to seize voting machines. and other Trump supporters, Michigan-based special prosecutor DJ Hilson said in a statement Tuesday afternoon.
In a separate defamation hearing on Monday, Lambert was accused of spreading pro-Trump conspiracy theories and using his office to investigate fraud charges in 2020. Admitted providing Dominion emails to a public official. Thousands of pages of Dominion emails are sent out through court filings and social media posts.
Mr. Lambert, Mr. Leaf, and their allies allege that the leaked emails implicate Dominion in the election fraud scandal. In a conspiracy-laden letter to House Republicans on Sunday, Mr. Leaf urged them to investigate Dominion and said leaked emails could mean “Serbian military criminals are running our elections.” He claimed that it was increasing the
Dominion denies these outlandish claims. A spokesperson told CNN on Monday that the company has a “small staff presence” in Serbia, but added: “There are no claims that Dominion employees anywhere tried to interfere with the election. It is a mistake.''
A federal judge overseeing part of the defamation case on Tuesday asked Lambert and Byrne to “immediately cease sharing, distributing, providing access to, or discussing any disclosure materials” they received as part of the Dominion lawsuit. signed the order.
The voting technology company has been battling a never-ending stream of disinformation since former President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. Lawyers for the company have filed defamation lawsuits against several of Trump's allies who defended these baseless claims, as well as the right-wing news outlets they were based in, including Fox News, Newsmax and OAN. .
Some of Lambert's fellow election deniers were outraged by her arrest, even claiming it supported the long-debunked view that the 2020 election results were tainted.
The right-wing group Election Integrity Unit, which has promoted unsubstantiated conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, posted a copy of the leaked Dominion files on its website, calling Lambert's arrest without evidence “an intimidation of a public figure.” “It was a calculated effort to silence them.” Please lend your voice to the movement for electoral reform. ”
Tina Peters, a former Mesa County, Colorado clerk who is facing state charges for election system violations related to 2020, praised Lambert on Tuesday as a “whistleblower.”
This story has been updated with additional information.
