www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/cyber-ninjas-company-led-arizona-gop-election-audit-shutting-down-n1287145
Cyber Ninjas, company that led Arizona GOP election 'audit,' is shutting down
That name has always screamed Ron Watkins to me, I'm sure they're involved in some way.
Republicans here in Pennsylvania are attempting to launch the same type of audit
AZ resident here, I sadly know some people who volunteered to help "review" ballots for the BS cyber ninja audit. They went on and on about all the fake ballots they found. When I asked them what training they received to question the ballots I got blank stares. I do think some people have been so brainwashed that they do believe there was fraud but I think the majority of people know the election wasn't rigged and just don't care. In the example of the people I know who volunteered for the audit, I shit you not it's a status symbol in their group of friends and heaven forbid those people volunteer their time for anything meaningful. My guess is the Pennsylvania audit would be the same.
Edit for spelling
I'd like to see the results of a sampling of ballots reviewed by a Republican volunteer, a Democrat volunteer, and a person actually trained to perform such an audit.
Agreed! Also, people need a better understanding of materiality. There is no way to verify 100% of votes and there will likely always be instances of someone voting by mistake or casting a dead relatives ballot. That doesn't automatically mean the entire election is bad!
Your mistake here is thinking that people are using those arguments in good faith. They're not and they fully understand that there are occasional innocent errors. They just won't tell you that because it doesn't help their bullshit narrative.
Materiality??? You mean acceptable fraud amount! See there’s fraud! /s
Bruh, I couldn't even get my mom's husband to understand that receiving multiple applications for mail-in-ballots doesn't mean that people can vote multiple times. He thought each application was for yet another ballot. And then he bitched about how they should count the mail ballots to make sure those people didn't also vote in person, you know, something they already do (I informed him, he ignored me). Then he went on to describe how his trumper friend received a mail-in-ballot application for their dog, to which I told him it sounded like his friend was trying to commit voter fraud because they wouldn't send mail for the dog unless his friend convinced them his dog was a voter. He ignored that too.
You cannot teach people who have no interest in learning and just want to be outraged all the time.
Some asshole on NextDoor was going on about how they got 3 ballots.
I sent their comment chain to the board of elections. The clerk or whomever emailed me a few days later saying the situation had been handled.
Someone from the election board posted on NextDoor basically calling the guy a liar, he never responded publicly.
That’s amazing.
I don't really get it. Like, I guess the thought process has to be "if there are mail votes the guy I want to win probably won't so I will post on the lost dog/yard sale/old people who don't understand, yet helped create, ISP monopolies forum to sow distrust locally in the election.
It boggles my mind that a so-called "patriot" would go through all that work to piss on the shreds of democracy that make this county "free" to a very limited audience in a way that is easily disproven.
And then he bitched about how they should count the mail ballots to make sure those people didn't also vote in person,
Trump actually encouraged his voters to vote by mail and in person..
How can using a dead relative’s ballot a mistake?
The shady thing is to certify results it’s just one person from each main party, talk about easy to control. Third parties don’t get representation.
So, we need to audit the audit? When does it end?
I really want to dems to use this as a cudgel against right wing voting restrictions
“Well we (read: you republicans) did a detailed audit and basically came up with jack, so no. You can’t have your voter ID laws, because it’s already been proven they’re not necessary”
Won’t work like that, but in a fair world it would.
That would require Democrats to have a backbone. Sadly, I do not see that happening.
Dems can't do jack shit without 60 votes. They presented bills, but couldn't get enough people to sign on.
There are tons of things they can do with 50 votes. They can’t even get that.
And they will never get to 60 senators unless they grow a spine. You do not get there by playing nice and trying to be bipartisan with a group of people that never will be.
They would need to grow 10 spines, complete with bodies
They would need to grow 10 spines, complete with bodies
Real human person TedCruz does that every year to make sure he is always wearing a fresh real human body. I don't see why the Democrats couldn't manage it.
It's easy to say grow a spine. A lot harder to do it. Bernie and AOC should be the soul of the party, but they aren't. The proposals they offered were bold. Growing a spine just like you said. Then the Blue Dogs throw a wrench in the works and it dies. Just like it does every time. It a stupid gesture as Blue Dogs always lose their next election. So all that pandering to Republicans was for nothing.
Then the Blue Dogs throw a wrench in the works and it dies.
Except they gave up their spine by constantly conceding to those Blue Dog Democrats who never intended to pass it. Democrats lost their chance to pass the BBB as soon as they said they would pass it separately from the infrastructure bill. They lost all leverage by making it seem like they were trying to be bipartisan and trying to pass it separately. Unless they are absolute dunces, they should realize that the only bipartisan support that matters is voters.
It isn't a matter of spine. Either you have the votes or you don't. They don't. Don't blame the victim. It is a bad habit of the left that we let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Biden can't arm wrestle legislation through the house. Even then it would die in the Senate. All the spine in the world isn't going to change that metric.
They're too busy hunting the mythical creature known as the "undecided moderate voter"
How much training do you really need to recognize that any ballot not voting for Trump is fake?
Well they’d need to be able to read names or recognise shapes.
but I think the majority of people know the election wasn't rigged and just don't care.
The majority of people, yes. If you look at just Republicans, apparently about 80% of them currently believe the election results were fraudulent. It has actually gotten worse since a year ago.
This is purely my opinion but I think the number increased not because they believe fraud happened but because they are mad about what Biden being president means to them and their way of life. The fraud argument is just easy to latch onto.
The bizarre thing is that very little has changed materially for those people. The stock market is still an ever growing house of cards, mask restrictions are mostly at the state level, Biden’s fulfilled basically none of his more progressive campaign promises, and yet conservative outrage news still finds new nothings to wring their hands over while the world burns.
It's all part of the show. It amazes me how the media, especially cable "news" sell fear and loathing to the masses. They eat it up without a second thought.
Hell, literally none of the conservatives I know even give a damn about massive problems like a) the many Afghans fleeing from/and are being abused by the Taliban, b) the fact that we're still helping Saudi Arabia bombing Yemen as recently as last month, c) thousands more people are unable to afford insulin in the US, and d) we still got a problem with police brutality, as cases like John Hurley has now been claimed as 'totally legal' and swept under a rug.
Like, months ago my 30-year-old brother tried to accuse me for what happened in Afghanistan*, until I showed him the blog posts I did tracking all of the wrongdoings and harm that has happened since we've pulled out. I was expecting him to bring it up again over Christmas when I visited (because my conservative family frequently forgets what things I'm not okay with/okay with, only to throw accusations to my face even though I'm not even a democrat in any way), and the whole time they were just...calm. It was like suddenly being transported to the pre-Obama era because they suddenly had no interest in what was going on or politics (and only chortled and did a 'Lets Go Brandon' statement once). Their outrage regarding Afghanistan was literally gone. It was surprising because during the last presidency, they were all jittery-as-hell and trying to ram every conversation into politics every time I visited.
(*and yeah, my whole family frequently accused me of 'being okay with' certain things that pissed them off. Even if I've never mentioned them, never watched/listened to anything about it in their house, nor posted it on Facebook. My mother's a manic bipolar who'd launch into a screaming fit over random things, so I've grown up always making sure to say as little as possible while completely avoiding making polarizing statements (so I've always left politics at the door whenever I had to visit). Didn't work the previous Christmas because my dad started making a one-person conversation with me on how John McCain was in fact a 'loser, who was never a war hero and was responsible for a mass-arson', until I incredulously asked him why he now hated McCain when he had voted for him. That's when he and my siblings shot me the accusation that I was pro-McCain despite that I a) didn't vote for him, b) never mentioned him anywhere around a living soul, and c) didn't like him either since he claimed that tortures in Guatanomo was okay. Had to tell my therapist that the last four years had been difficult because it felt like my whole family was talking to a completely different person that they imagined was me).
Many modern Republicans cling to a very simplistic “if you’re not with us, you’re against” us mentality, evidence in things like their immediate vilification of Republicans with absolutely solid conservative bona fides simply for not blindly backing (the profoundly not conservative) Donald Trump 100% of the time. Seems like you became a proxy for all the “against us” boogeymen your family was seeing.
John Hurley
Fuck John Hurley. This is perfect illustration that good guy with the gun fantasy is not sustainable. When shooting starts and cops show up, they will kill everyone on sight (or even behind walls in changing rooms as practice shows).
Saying it was fraud because you’re butthurt is even more pathetic than actually believing it.
Which could be due to people leaving the party due to it being increasingly insane but is more likely just that all the rugged individualist free thinkers have been swayed by propaganda and peer pressure.
it's a status symbol in their group of friends.
A longtime friend was in town, and she said she and her friends discussed how uncomfortable and ‘afraid’ she was having to visit the ‘liberal city’.
I wish I had asked her what she and her friends were afraid would happen. This city is safer than hers.
Yep I have those friends too. Over the summer one of my friends cancelled her annual girls trip to Palm Springs because and I quote "there could be riots and her husband is concerned". IT'S PALM SPIRNGS! The only risk of violence is if someone tries to sit at a slot machine that some 75yo swears they were saving. I finally realized this was an attempt to imply California isn't safe because liberals live there.
Exactly! She’s visited here at least 15 times over the years. And now, it’s unsafe. The same people live here that were here before.
How did you know they were fake?
They were for Biden of course.
/s but probably not
Is it the hanging chads again?
They went on and on about all the fake ballots they found. When I asked them what training they received to question the ballots I got blank stares.
I'm laughing cuz it hurts...
That name has always screamed Ron Watkins to me, I'm sure they're involved in some way
Fuck that creep and his pedo dad
I'm sure they are, they're the boys who cry wolf who are also planning on releasing wolves in the future and want people to disbelieve the legitimate cries.
Great analogy
They're trying to do the same thing here in Nebraska. Why? Because Biden won District 2, which Obama also won back in 2008. But the GOP House member for District 2 was reelected, so the local GOP is saying "there is no way someone would vote for both a GOP Congressman and a Democrat President!". They can't seem to grasp that Trump managed to alienate independents and even some registered Republicans. They also don't take in to account that despite the Dems putting up a candidate that seemed "unelectable" in Nebraska, it was still a close race for the House (50.8 vs 46.2, with 3% going to the Libertarian candidate)
So far there hasn't been much traction for the recount, but it's on the Nebraska Unicameral agenda for the next session.
Americans absolutely need to have faith the election system. And audits are a practical solution to that end.
But these petty, half-ass, non-transparent, clearly ill-conceived political gambits are not the audits Americans deserve. I couldn't imagine what would have happened Hill-Rod's lackeys (yes, she has lackeys) funded and pushed through a series of election audits in 2017.
And audits are a practical solution to that end.
But they aren’t, really. Anyone who actually cares about reality and pays the slightest bit of attention knows that our elections aren’t really susceptible to the kind of fraud being alleged. What we’re dealing with are people that are simply going to reject any result that doesn’t support what they already believe. No matter how rigorous the audit is. No matter how much faith they themselves expressed in that specific “audit” while it was ongoing. As soon as it contradicts their belief they start pulling rationalizations out of their ass about why it isn’t real.
And audits are a practical solution to that end.
If an election isn't fair, you can bet a recount wouldn't be any more fair. My county has newer machines that enter data electronically and produce a paper version compatible with both humans and OCR. That makes recounts easy. There never should have been an "audit" from some third party. Their results have no effect other than to grift idiots out of their cash.
Wisconsinite here. The fuckery continues over here too.
That was the entire purpose of that. Rather than company, I would call it a project. Since the objective was achieved, the project winds down.
well that and getting suckers money...
Cyber Ninjas, a Florida-based company with no prior experience in election audits, said it had received $3.25m from Patrick Byrne, the former CEO of the furniture sales company Overstock, who has falsely described the 2020 election as “rigged”, with more money pouring in from figures who have peddled lies about the legitimacy of the vote.
The Arizona senate allowed Cyber Ninjas to collect private donations even though the company was being paid $150,000 for the audit.
Information from Cyber Ninjas showed that it has collected $976,512.43 from America’s Future, a rightwing non-profit organization chaired by the Trump ally and QAnon devotee Michael Flynn. The company received $605,000 from Voices and Votes led by Christina Bobb, a correspondent for the hard-right media organization One America News Network.
Defending the Republic, a group led by Sidney Powell, Trump’s attorney who has filed a number of baseless lawsuits challenging election results, gave $550,000.
Logan has fought to keep the funders of Cyber Ninjas secret, though he acknowledged at the beginning of the audit that his $150,000 contract with the Arizona senate would not cover the cost of the work his company had been hired to do. He released the figures on the deadline for him to voluntarily comply with Congress’s request for information.
Since they aren't a PAC, they probably don't have financial disclosures etc. Getting hit with the $50k fine per day until they disclose their documents really dips into that freebie money
Lets not forget: the voting machines that they "audited" are now junk so will have to be replaced. Nothing like having a bunch of grifters have unsupervised control of millions of dollars of sensitive equipment.
$3 Million Dollars.
They need to replace them at their cost. I live here and heard all kinds of news about these idiots and their failures to protect sensitive voter information and the equipment. A total sham ran by the GOP of AZ and their master, d.t.
In less than 4 hours, the GOP and its stooges did more harm to America than any enemy did during the cold war.
Now, now, that might be a little extreme.
Both the Nixon and Reagan administration's served in that time, and they did a lot of damage over their years, too.
America is fine, we voted him out.
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2.4y
You know they have no veracity to their claims when they do an extensive audit, tilt the balance of that audit in their favor, and still come out losing votes, lol.
I think Trump is one of few people that can have that level of losing, it's like a loss within a loss.
What a bunch of clowns.
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2.4y
This company just grifted a treasure of taxpayer dollars
Do they not also have a metric fuck ton of people's personal information?
Isn't it this akin to hacking?
The election came down to choosing between Milk and a bag of runny cat diarrhea. So I choose Milk… I mean I would have rather had Root beer, coke, beer or water.. but Milk is better than a bag of runny cat diarrhea..
more like sour milk
I like peach juice
Pretty sure it was mostly right leaning moron donations not tax payer money.
No, Arizona funded that shit.
Partly. Much of the money came from elsewhere, and Cyber Ninjas doesn't even want to reveal who else was paying for it, which is probably also a crime. (Can't have secret private subsidy of state contracts).
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2.4y
Naw, that stuff needs to be said. The idiocy that led to people believing that the election was stolen despite the overwhelming evidence it wasn't is the same exact idiocy that is keeping the pandemic going, as those same people refuse to believe the vaccines are safe and effective.
There's a point where idiots have to stop being coddled.
Maybe it would be healthy for you to not comment for a bit
How much money did they grift in donations and from the Arizona taxpayer while this circus was going on? Of course they're shutting down. They're likely filthy fucking rich and they're going to skedaddle to a tax haven.
Sad thing is, the dipshit is coming here later this month due to the cancellation yesterday. Idiots will line up and hand him $. I hope Klepper shows up.
I'm so sorry you'll have to be in the same state as Mango Mussolini.
Now that they've done what they were really supposed to do.
maga hopium dealers make defeat tolerable through pageantry of denial.
"biden isn't really the president anyway. trump won and is going to deport the jews save america."
They do put a twister of a spin on everything don't they?
$50,000 a day fine starting today. I'll bet like fearless leader, they too file bankruptcy. losers, so sad. As an Arizona resident, I want our money back. Lawsuits will be piling up
Sure seems like they’re trying to do this to avoid the $50K/day fines. Those fines need to be charged to the owner so they don’t grift scot free.
The judge who ruled on the $50k/day said he’s not afraid to put the cost on the individual, not just the corporation, so we’ll see.
"Not afraid to" and "legally allowed to" are not the same thing.
Being able to go after an individual for the actions of a company defeats the entire purpose of an LLC.
While I certainly hope the judge is able to hold someone accountable, I'm not sure he has the ability to.
Generally speaking LLCs only protect individuals when they’re acting in a reasonable manner consistent with running the business properly and happen to unintentionally make an error.
This is the polar opposite of that. I’m sure there’s going to be some personal liability at some point. You can’t go scam a government and say “no takebacks cuz I have LLC papers nanana!”
Awesome, good to know.
I truly do hope there is accountability.
That's exactly what Trump did with Russian flight capitol. Over the years, his minions sold over 1,700 properties to Russian expats through LLCs. Most of it in Brighton Beach. Of course, it wouldn't look like Russians. Being Jewish, they were able to establish dual citizenship is Israel. Then it would just look like someone coming from an ally.
This goes back to when Stalin was sending Jews to prison camps. As what usually happens in prison, they formed syndicates. When they got out, those syndicates remained and moved to New York. Long story short: Trump is neck deep in the expat Russian mafia.
Totally not true - an LLC is not a license to use the law as a shield for an illegal purpose. LLC managers or members who refuse to follow a court order to turn over documents during discovery are engaging in criminal conduct: contempt of court. When someone tries to use the corporate liability shield to commit an unlawful act, that is exactly when the corporate veil is pierced.
There's a reason it's called a Limited liability company, not an "absolutely no liability company", lol, but the same principles apply to corporations; even the directors of a F500 can be held personally responsible if they knowingly engage in criminal activity and try to hide behind the corporate veil.
Makes sense or else you'd have constant LLCs being created just to post "news" about their pedophile enemies then shuttering when sued for slander.
Limited liability is more of a financial than a legal shield.
Another day, another MAGA scam.
another pride of Sarasota Florida..home to complete right wing nutjobs like Mike Flynn and Tucker Carlson
Once a grifter, always a grifter.
It was a smash and grab. How much of the money they were paid went to the owner?
We've grifted all we can. Pack it up.
Does the company shutting down actually stop the fine from proceeding? The fines should go into liens against the company assets (as if there are any) in bankruptcy.
No. They also laid off everyone so my guess is they're going to file Bankruptcy.
The only thing the Cyber Ninjas excelled at was bilking American tax payers out of millions of dollars that could have been better spent on pretending to build a fence, paying for Republican legal defence against sex crimes fund, or buying fast food for VIP whitehouse guests like that basketball team the other year.
To be relaunched later as Cyber Pirates...
Or Butt Pirates!
CyberNinjas 2077
Throw away name, recyclable company. Who says GQP isn't green?
They never really "opened up". They still haven't explained themselves.
May the puppet masters and all their immoral collaborators rot for the rest of their days.
A "cyber ninja" sounds like a cringy word recruiters would use to describe the person they're looking to hire for a cybersecurity role.
That does not mean their obligation to provide records stops. The judge can hold the owners in contempt.
Announced they were shutting down the day that a judge applied a 50k per day penalty for not making their records available after a court order. I wonder what they could possibly be trying to hide.
This was always a false flag operation to channel millions of unspent campaign funds to a shell company. They used hundreds of volunteer workers (aka free labor) and Laundered the campaign contributions as billed by cyber ninjas. These then likely sent the millions through to highly paid advisors and lawyers that trump owed money to.
Live in Arizona and a republican and knew this was bullshit from the beginning. Trump lost fair and square. Not rigged not stolen.
I'm an Independent who was regularly questioned by poll takers, in person and by phone. As a Veteran, I'd had enough of his BS before he even ran and it only got worse. I openly shared my plans with them, but they seemed to be in denial. Them: On a scale of 1 to 10, what is your level of trust in the POTUS? Me: zero Them: We'll put you down as undecided, *click
Deep state got to them
Only to be rebranded under some other name. Hopefully one equally ducking ridiculous.
Cyber Pirates. I'm calling it now.
The names Blackwater and Cambridge Analytica are freed up.
Actually the real reason they're shutting down is because of an unrelated issue with their offices.
(The CEO's mom is selling her house and the company just hasn't been able to find another basement to use rent-free that also has access to free snacks.) /s
More accurate headline for ya:
Cyber Ninjas, scammers, disappear with the money
The audit was just an excuse to funnel money to a false company to perform an imaginary review of an already know issue. They will never going to find any evidence of fraud because (they knew it wasnt any) all was a show for the idiots. Anyway, the gop keep some people happy and some con man runaway with a good portion of public money.
That was a top notch scam. And Republicans (note, I didn't say conservatives) are top notch imbeciles.
So they can't or won't turn over their "findings" so their response is to shut the company down, yea that doesn't sound completely criminal.
They weren't ninjas, they were more like non-jas. Terrible what passes for a ninja these days.
shocked cartoon character face
Gone in a puff of smoke...
Audit the audit the audit the audit the audit! Stop the count, count all votes! Do I sound conservative enough?
It was obvious that the audit was a fake, and the company was running a scam. At least it should have been obvious.
Anyone know when they started? Was it just before the election results?
If you are asking when the company was founded, it was in 2014.
As soon as they found out he lost AZ. A few days later, idk
But why shut down? I’m all for them continuing to spend millions of republican dollars chasing election chupacabras, sasquatches, and chimeras. It feels like they’re all very credible creatures to which we need answers.
How is this news? I just assumed they would when I first learned about them
No it's not. It's just changing names to duck lawsuits.
Mind you, this is after multiple audit done by Auditors.
Ooooh, Oooh, take the money and run.
Sung to the tune of Steve Miller's Take the Money and Run.
The grifters credo: Grab that cash, and run
Of course they are shutting down, the grift is over. They've already robbed the rubes blind and are moving onto greener pastures
Oh no! My avacado toast is ready!
Cyber Ninjas (2021-2022)
We hardly knew ye (thankfully)
Shutting down? More likely just changing sheets.
They desperately tried to prove voter fraud and found no evidence and then got attacked by their own allies for daring to be honest. Fuck ‘em.
They didn't even try to be honest in the end. They tried so hard to make it sound like the data supported the Big Lie without actually saying it, it wasn't even funny.
Man, I hope it was funded by taxpayers too. That would then pretty much complete the shit circle that is stop the steal.
They should change their name to Hubris
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2.4y
Like any good con artist, pocket the cash and dip town
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2.4y
Awwww yeaaaaah. Loses every single courtcase but still thinks the election was lost by cheating.
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2.4y
None of that really matters, all evidence points to him winning and there's not enough to prove otherwise.
Why did Republican judges throw out all of Trump's dispute cases? They can't have sided with the Dems if they had cheated.
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2.4y
Also Biden is just more liked than Clinton, Diamond Joe and all that. Of course Trump easily defeated her.
Nobody i know has any respect for either Clinton after their years and years of bullshit, but Biden is well respected for his long time lawmaking and his time as VP.
Biden went all in on Pro Cop and Pro Women laws, those count for something.
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Thanks Cyber Ninjas.
For going above and beyond in trying to sow distrust in our election system only to throw more votes in the person you wanted to lose.