Judge to Order Cyber Ninjas CEO to Turn Over Records from Discredited Arizona Election Review

On Tuesday, an Arizona judge said that former Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan and his wife are responsible for releasing public records related to the partisan and discredited “audit” of the 2020 election results in Maricopa County. 

Despite previous court rulings, Logan has refused to turn over documents in response to American Oversight’s lawsuit against the Arizona Senate and Cyber Ninjas seeking the release of records from the election inquiry. A similar lawsuit brought by the Arizona Republic was consolidated with American Oversight’s case earlier this year; Tuesday’s hearing came in response to the Republic moving to bring Logan and his wife into the litigation individually.

Echoing multiple past court orders, Judge Michael Kemp of the Maricopa County Superior Court affirmed that records from lead “audit” contractor Cyber Ninjas’ work on the review were public records that must be turned over.

“[Logan] needs to turn over everything,” Kemp said, according to the Republic. “The issue of public records has been clearly resolved. These are public records. There is no more dispute over that. That is the law of the case. Period.”

Logan, who said his firm was disbanded in January and who has since then been facing sanctions of $50,000 per day for his failure to release records, argued that a lack of employees to gather the documents created a financial burden. Kemp dismissed that argument, and said that Logan and his wife, Meghan Logan, are personally responsible for turning over “audit”-related documents. 

The proposed court order, which Kemp directed the Republic’s lawyer to file with the court, directs the Logans to release records related to the “audit” on a rolling basis, requiring the first set of records be produced by May 6 and additional documents then released every five court days. American Oversight will post the signed order here after it is signed by Kemp.

In March, Kemp approved the motion by Phoenix Newspapers Inc., the Republic’s parent company, to add the Logans as defendants in the lawsuit.

Lawyers for the Logans and for Cyber Ninjas have continued to question whether records from their work on the botched election review are public, despite multiple court rulings, including by the Arizona Court of Appeals. The Arizona Senate, which ordered the “audit” last year, has also attempted to argue that some of its records should be withheld from the public under a broad claim of legislative privilege. On May 10, the state Supreme Court will hear the Senate’s appeal of lower court rulings that have rejected this overly broad claim of legislative privilege. 

More information about American Oversight’s investigation and the records uncovered to date can be found here. Legal filings related to the case can be found here.