Arizona auditor says he recovered delted files

FPI / May 20, 2021

The founder of a computer forensics company which is working on the Maricopa County audit, told Arizona state senators that he recovered all 2020 election data that had reportedly been deleted.

During a livestreamed hearing called by Republican state Senate President Karen Fann on Tuesday, Ben Cotton, founder of the digital forensics company CyFIR, said: “I’ve been able to recover all of those deleted files, and I have access to that data.”

The audit’s official Twitter account noted that Maricopa County had “deleted a directory full of election databases from the 2020 election cycle” shortly before turning over its ballot tabulation machines to the audit.

To back up its claim, the audit's account posted a screenshot purporting to show a list of deleted files, all of which were shown as being modified on April 12, about a week and a half before the county delivered the machines to Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix, where the audit is being conducted.

Fann said she called the Tuesday hearing to address several issues the audit team raised. Fann asked county supervisors to attend so they could answer questions in person, but they refused.

The audit is on hold this week while the arena where it is taking place is used for high school graduations.






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