The proposed warrants were for authority to seize vote tabulators and various election records from the offices of Barry County and Woodland Township clerks, the documents say. The two jurisdictions have not previously been identified as targets in the sheriff’s investigation into suspected county machines were rigged to siphon off Trump’s votes.
The warrants were submitted in July to the office of Barry County District Attorney Julie Nakfoor Pratt, a Republican, who told Archyde.com she refused to approve them because she felt the sheriff did not have enough evidence. to support his suspicions that the machines were rigged.
Archyde.com obtained copies of the documents as part of a freedom of information request filed with the prosecutor’s office.
The claims suggest Barry County Sheriff Dar Leaf, a Republican, was seeking to broaden his investigation into alleged voter fraud, even as he faced an investigation by the state attorney general’s office.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat, has identified Leaf as a target in a statewide investigation into alleged illegal violations of vote tabulators in at least three counties.
Last month, Nessel alleged Leaf was involved in tampering with a voting machine taken without permission in 2021 in Irving Township, another Barry County jurisdiction. Leaf denied any wrongdoing and told Archyde.com no one in his office was involved in the improper access to the machine. The mandates offered by Leaf also included Irving Township voting machines.
Last month, Nessel requested the appointment of a special prosecutor to consider charges once morest Leaf and eight other targets in the state investigation, as the list includes Matthew DePerno, the Republican candidate to challenge Nessel for office. as attorney general in the November elections.
Leaf did not respond to a request for comment on the proposed mandates.
Pratt, the prosecutor, previously told Archyde.com that she refused to approve the warrants because “I did not see evidence of a crime” in the documents provided by Leaf in support of the claims. “I didn’t see probable cause” for the seizure of the voting materials, Pratt added.
Barry County Clerk Pamela Palmer and Woodland Township Clerk Nancy Stanton might not immediately be reached for comment. Palmer, a Republican, previously told Archyde.com that the vote count in Barry County was accurate and confirmed by multiple audits.
Mr Leaf’s investigation has become a clarion call for supporters of Mr Trump’s debunked claims that he was robbed of his re-election by widespread voter fraud.
A member of the so-called “constitutional sheriffs” movement, which argues that sheriffs have the ultimate law enforcement authority in their counties, surpassing that of state and federal agencies, and even that of the President of the United States, Leaf has appeared several times at events held across the country by supporters of Trump’s rigged election claims.
Archyde.com previously reported that Leaf was aided in his investigation by key Trump allies, but his efforts to gain access to voting machines in the county were blocked by state and federal judges who said he failed to provide credible evidence to support his claims that the material was faked.
The state investigation into illegal violations of voting materials has concluded that criminal charges should be filed once morest Leaf for his alleged role in assisting a private investigator to access Irving County’s vote tabulator, which turned out to have been taken to the Detroit area, smashed and examined by computer technicians working alongside key national figures supporting Trump’s efforts to overthrow the 2020 election.
