Election denier Patrick Byrne claims he's conducted “illegal activity ... hacking the government of Venezuela”
Byrne: “So it's really weird for me to go up and stand in front of a magistrate in Washington, D.C. who thinks I'm relying on ... the Dominion discovery. I based it all on this illegal activity.”
Published
Patrick Byrne, an election denier who was involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and who has ties to the QAnon conspiracy theory, is involved in a lawsuit with election software company Dominion Voting Systems, which has alleged Byrne defamed the company with baseless assertions that the company rigged the 2020 election. Dominion filed similar suits against right-wing media outlets and other Trump allies. In an X Space, Byrne discussed the case, claiming “it’s really weird for me to go up and stand in front of a magistrate in Washington, D.C. who thinks I’m relying on ... the Dominion discovery. I based it all on this illegal activity.” According to Byrne, the “illegal activity” was “hacking the government of Venezuela.”
Other comments that Byrne made during the discussion garnered attention from The Washington Post, which reported that he threatened law enforcement, saying they would face “a piano wire and a blowtorch” if they continued to try fellow election denier Tina Peters. Peters is a former Mesa County, Colorado election clerk who has been accused of tampering with election equipment, and Byrne has reportedly paid some of her legal bills. Byrne told The Washington Post that his remarks about law enforcement were “obviously a metaphor.” As The New York Times reported, Byrne, Peters, and others have “continued to push false claims against the company, often by seeking to use information gleaned from the very defamation lawsuits the firm has filed against them.”
Election denier Patrick Byrne claims he's conducted “illegal activity ... hacking the government of Venezuela”
Citation From a July 25, 2024, Twitter/X Space
PATRICK BYRNE (OVERSTOCK.COM FOUNDER): I'll also tell you — yeah, I wish this was happening about five days later. I'd feel more comfortable telling you what I'm about to tell you, but I may as well tell you. What I've really been doing for the last two years abroad is I've been hacking the government of Venezuela and I have it all at this point. I have everything. And it's kind of funny, somewhere along the way, somebody told me — I got kicked out. I was operating in a foreign countries and I hired a bunch of professional hackers and we hacked the government of Venezuela, and I have everything.
And by the way, the government put up a death threat. The Venezuelan government put up what's essentially a death threat against — well, I'm not sure if they understand that I was behind at all until just now, but pretty sure they understood. And I hacked the government of Venezuela, and I've stolen everything. And everything we've been asserting from November 4 [of 2020] is true.
I'll even mention that in one of these four countries from which I was operating, I got thrown out. By the way, I'm in Baku, Azerbaijan at this moment. But, anyway, I hacked the government in Venezuela and, or I hired a team of professionals and we hacked it.
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So anyway, so we have it all. It's all true. This is all Venezuelan junk. All of this software is Venezuelan junk, just as we've been telling you from a week after the election. And we have all the proof. We have everything. So Tina Peters was right from the beginning. It's funny. I don't think I've conducted an act of war since the mid-nineties or something, but this was an act of war. But we have everything.
And, just a few nights ago, the president of Venezuela made — actually, he replayed — they put up on Venezuelan TV a statement that essentially says they understand what I've done and that I'm an enemy of the regime. But, anyway, so, yeah, I freely admit I've conducted — well, that was at that time, that was, like, last February or March. I've conducted four or five major international felonies by that point. I don't know how many I've conducted since then, or how many acts of war, but we have it all. This is all Venezuelan junk.
Any federal official listening to this should understand that oath you swore to the Constitution, really isn't — wasn't just happy talk. You had — you swore an oath to do something, and you're failing to do it. I don't give a shit that I've conducted all these felonies. I look forward. But this is all Venezuelan junk. All this software is Venezuelan junk. It's just masked to be — to look like it's a company in Denver.
It's not a company in Denver. It's a company in Serbia. I mean, the whole — really, essentially, the Dominion is a Serbian — the tech center is all in Serbia. The machines are made in China, and none of this I'm telling you incidentally comes from any of the discovery that we got — I got out of my Dominion — my lawsuit against Dominion.
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We've hacked the government of Venezuela. We have the source code. We have every — so none of this is coming from any Dominion lawsuit. I was in a court in Washington, D.C. about three or four months ago, and this judge was scolding me, saying I've done this or she suspects I've done this, I've done that.
I haven't even looked at the Dominion discovery. I haven't even looked at any of the Dominion discovery, and I didn't — I don't depend on the Dominion discovery at all. There's entrepreneurial ways to finding the truth, and there's legal ways of finding the truth. And what we've learned, this country has learned in the last four years, is that the legal ways are like a Kabuki dance. And, you know, they could — they can run it out for 400 years if we let the legal process go through its paces.
So I just did it the entrepreneurial way, and we took a shortcut and we hacked the government of Venezuela, and we have everything. And I committed I don't know how many felonies in the process, and at least one act of war.
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So anyway, everything [Tina Peters] alleged was true, everything you've all suspected is true. It's all Venezuelan junk with a mask over it, with a mask has the name Dominion on it. It's all fake, and their real center of gravity is Serbia and really behind the scenes of everything is China. So that may all sound crazy. I'm happy to walk into a courtroom in Colorado or anywhere and lay this all on the line. Tina Peters was in the right and a key part of getting to the truth was getting that image that Tina Peters caused to be made of the Mesa County hard drive.
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Boy I wish I could tell you more. I do know more, I do know more, but a little bit comes — I don't even want to say comes from our discovery against Dominion. But our discovery against Dominion, which is the stuff that we got out of this very legalistic Kabuki dance process, simply confirms all the stuff that we actually got illegally. And I'm not ashamed to say that, I'm happy to say that.
It was funny being a few months ago up in front of this judge who in D.C. who thinks that I, you know, I used that from — I used that Dominion discovery to do this, that, and the other thing. I don't want to break his heart, anyone's heart. I never even looked at the Dominion discovery. Never even opened it. Never even opened it. And to the extent it's been — I've looked at, like, five or six pieces of it in — since March as a new lawyer got involved and said, “Holy cow. And this has to be turned over to authorities.”
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So it's really weird for me to go up and stand in front of a magistrate in Washington, D.C. who thinks I'm relying on, well, “Dominion turned over some emails to you. And when they turn over the emails to you, that's the basis on which you said this, Mr. Byrne. And that's the basis on which you said that, Mr. Byrne.” I didn't quite have the heart to tell that magistrate, “No. I didn't base anything I've said on anything that I got out of the Dominion discovery. I based it all on this illegal activity I've been conducting hacking the government of Venezuela.”