A Michigan lawyer who had flouted a judge’s order in an ongoing tabulator tampering case has been taken into custody.

Stefanie Lambert Junttila, who was wanted on an Oakland County bench warrant, was arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service in Washington, D.C.,  Lambert Junttila, was in the nation’s capital representing Patrick Byrne, the former CEO of Overstock.com, in a defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems.

The Detroit News reports that following a federal court hearing Monday afternoon in Byrne’s case, Lambert Junttila was taken into custody and was being held as a fugitive from justice pending her return to Michigan. 

Lambert Junttila was one of three individuals indicted as part of a probe into alleged tampering with voting tabulators in Michigan, following the 2020 election in which President Joe Biden defeated former President Donald Trump. Former GOP attorney general nominee Matthew DePerno and former state Rep. Daire Rendon (R-Lake City) were also indicted in the case.

Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Jeffery S. Matis on March 8 issued the bench warrant after Lambert Junttila failed to attend a show cause hearing the day before and then did not turn herself in within 24 hours as directed by the court.

That hearing had been scheduled after Lambert Junttila had refused on multiple occasions since August of last year to submit to having her fingerprints and a DNA sample taken, as is required by law. She has resisted doing so, claiming that Special Prosecutor D.J. Hilson wanted to use them to compare with prints found on the tabulators.  

When she failed to appear at a follow-up hearing on March 13, Matis ruled that the warrant would remain in effect, despite arguments from her attorney that she had missed the original hearing due to a misunderstanding.

“She needs to turn herself in or she will be picked up,” Matis responded.

The to Monday hearing in the Byrne case that had brought Lambert Junttila to Washington, D.C., was scheduled by a federal magistrate after Lambert Junttila admitted to violating a court order by releasing confidential communications from Dominion Voting Systems to Barry County Sheriff Dar Leaf, who had been under investigation in the tabulator case but was ultimately not charged due to a lack of sufficient evidence. 

Starting Sunday, an account on the X social media platform bearing Leaf’s name, @SheriffLeaf, and picture, began uploading thousands of emails from Dominion employees marked “confidential.” Dominion is suing Byrne for defamation due to his repeatedly disproven claims that the company’s voting systems were used to “rig” the 2020 election against former Trump. 

The company, which is also suing  MyPillow founder Mike Lindell and attorney Sidney Powell, settled a similar suit against Fox News for $787 million last year.

On her X page, Junttila Lambert posted a defense of her actions, continuing to allege criminal activity in regard to Dominion.

“I gave the evidence to law enforcement,” she said, referring to Leaf. “The discovery [file from Dominion] contained evidence of numerous crimes. The Constitution does not permit secret Serbians to run our elections. Local clerks are to run our elections, & transparency is prevented by vendors [Dominion].”

Judge issues warrant for Lambert Junttila in 2020 voting machine case

Dominion filed an emergency motion on Friday to disqualify Lambert Junttila from the Byrne case for sharing the documents that had been provided through a protective order during the discovery process. The magistrate in that case held off on doing that, but did cut off access to the document repository.

In its filings, Dominion says its employees continue to  face death threats, including a man armed with a rifle who came to their offices, because of the false accusations by Byrne, Lambert Junttila and others.

“As a result of the disinformation campaign against Dominion, the company and its employees have been targeted and have received death threats and calls for jail time,” stated the attorneys. “Because of these threats and numerous others, Dominion has made significant expenditures to protect its people from harm — including by employing on-site police and security. Since the beginning of the viral disinformation campaign, Dominion has spent more than $600,000 on private security for the protection of its people.”

Lambert Junttila is facing a total of four felonies in the tabulator case including undue possession of a voting machine, conspiracy to commit undue possession of a voting machine, conspiracy to commit unauthorized access to a computer or computer system, and willfully damaging a voting machine. Each charge carries a maximum five year prison sentence, and up to $10,000 in fines. 

She was also previously sanctioned by a federal judge for her role in “frivolous” lawsuits aiming to overturn the result of the 2020 election.

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