A new report from The Arizona Republic highlights the deep links between Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan and a group of individuals who have dedicated themselves to overthrowing the 2020 election results – many of whom have deep links to the QAnon conspiracy theory.
Logan’s firm Cyber Ninjas was hired by the Arizona state Senate in March to conduct an “audit” of the 2020 election results in Maricopa County. The partisan event has been the centerpiece for conservatives around the country to erode the public’s trust of the American voting system and work as a catalyst for other states to push for similar “audits.”
The Republic’s reporting outlines Logan’s connections working with attorney Lin Wood, former Trump attorney Sidney Powell, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, and former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne – all of who have a history of working together to overturn the 2020 election, spread voter fraud and QAnon-linked conspiracy theories, and undermine American democracy.
According to the report, Logan became involved with these individuals months before the Arizona audit was approved by the state Senate. Based on text messages from a former employee at Lin Wood’s FightBack, Logan was invited “to a Nov. 15 meeting at Wood's place about election fraud that involved Powell.”
From there, Logan’s involvement with these individuals remained steadfast.
The report explained that by late December, Logan “helped organize” a team of analysts assigned to reviewing copies of voting records from Antrim County, Michigan. This review was in connection to a lawsuit from Michigan lawyer Matthew DePerno who claimed that Dominion voting machines were susceptible to fraud and corruption and advocated for an audit in Michigan. These claims were later amplified by QAnon adherents and then-President Donald Trump who wanted the Justice Department to investigate the conspiratorial fraud claims in Michigan.
(It should be noted that DePerno is running for Michigan’s attorney general position and has amplified QAnon influencers, including Praying Medic, who has previously called for a military coup. In fact, the Arizona audit has multiple QAnon connections.)
The Republic also examined text messages from early December between Staci Burk (Arizona resident who filed a lawsuit claiming the election was rigged) and contacts working with Sidney Powell. According to the report, an individual whose contact was listed as “Doug Patriot” texted that they thought they should provide Burk with subpoenas regarding her case and election fraud in Arizona. It is impossible to know for sure whether “Doug Patriot” is Logan, but “Burk said she had heard Logan's name before.”
As explained by The Republic, “If this is Logan, as Burk surmises, the texts place Logan working on subpoenas for voting machines — including requests for many technical documents and materials related to the election — in Arizona at a critical juncture in the audit timeline.”
By early January, Logan was involved in Powell’s attempts to persuade Congress to not certify the election results for Joe Biden. Reporting revealed Logan’s byline listed on Powell’s website under a document named “Election Fraud Facts & Details.” The document claims there was “foreign influence” on the election and suggests that “Dominion, the 2nd largest US voting machine vendor, originates from intellectual property of Smartmatic; a company that was founded in communist [Venezuela] with links to Chavez” (Dominion and Smartmatic are not linked to Venezuela or Hugo Chavez).
According to the report, Logan told Arizona state Senate President Karen Fann in an April email that he created the document “to help U.S. senators who ‘wanted to either object to the certification of the election; or get evidence into the official record to show some of what had been found.’”
As documented by “a log of documents the Senate has refused to publicly release” Fann’s relationship with Logan started with texting on February 5.
By March, Fann picked Cyber Ninjas to spearhead the audit. By doing so, Fann hired not only Logan, but the litany of bad actors he associated himself with in the months leading up to the audit. And these same election conspiracy theorists, including Powell, Flynn, DePerno, and Bryne, helped finance the audit – with “nearly $5.7 million” going to Cyber Ninjas and its subcontractors from organizations linked with these individuals.
These individuals have not stopped promoting the Arizona audit in an attempt to spread their election fraud conspiracies. For example, in June, on former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon’s podcast, Powell claimed that the Arizona audit was “the gold standard of how these audits must be conducted” – while also shilling merch to support these efforts.