GOP Consultant Subpoenaed in Case Alleging Tampering with 2004 Election

[Snazzy]

(I missed this Sept. 30, pretty significant subpoena which GOP has ignored)

GOP Consultant Subpoenaed in Case Alleging Tampering with 2004 Election
By Larisa Alexandrovna and Muriel Kane, Raw Story
Posted on September 30, 2008, Printed on October 25, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/100881/
COLUMBUS -- A high-level Republican consultant has been subpoenaed in a case regarding alleged tampering with the 2004 election.

Michael S. Connell was served with a subpoena in Ohio on Sept. 22 in a case alleging that vote-tampering during the 2004 presidential election resulted in civil rights violations. Connell, president of GovTech Solutions and New Media Communications, is a website designer and IT professional who created a website for Ohio's secretary of state that presented the results of the 2004 election in real time as they were tabulated.

At the time, Ohio's Secretary of State, Kenneth J. Blackwell, was also chairman of Bush-Cheney 2004 reelection effort in Ohio.

Connell is refusing to testify or to produce documents relating to the system used in the 2004 and 2006 elections, lawyers say. His motion to quash the subpoena asserts that the request for documents is burdensome because the information sought should be "readily ascertainable through public records request" -- but also, paradoxically, because "it seeks confidential, trade secrets, and/or proprietary information" that "have independent economic value" and "are not known to the public, or even to non-designated personnel within or working for Mr. Connell's business."

...

King Lincoln Bronzeville Neighborhood Association v. Blackwell

The case, known as King Lincoln Bronzeville Neighborhood Association v. Blackwell, was filed against Kenneth J. Blackwell on Aug. 31, 2006 by Columbus attorneys Clifford Arnebeck, Robert Fitrakis and others. It initially charged Blackwell with racially discriminatory practices -- including the selective purging of voters from the election rolls and the unequal allocation of voting machines to various districts -- and asked for measures to be taken to prevent similar problems during the November 2006 election.

On Oct. 9, 2006, an amended complaint added charges of various forms of ballot-rigging as also having the effect of "depriving the Plaintiffs of their voting rights, including the right to have their votes successfully cast without intimidation, dilution, cancellation or reversal by voting machine or ballot tampering." A motion to dismiss the case as moot was filed following the November 2006 election, but it was instead stayed to allow for settlement discussions.

The case took on fresh momentum earlier this year when Arnebeck announced in July that he was filing to "lift the stay in the case proceed with targeted discovery in order to help protect the integrity of the 2008 election." The new filing was inspired in part by the coming forward as a whistleblower of GOP IT security expert Stephen Spoonamore, who said he was prepared to testify to the plausibility of electronic vote-rigging having been carried out in 2004.

Arnebeck's hope was that in the course of the discovery procedure it would be possible to subpoena Michael Connell, former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, and others to obtain additional information and improve the focus of the case. The stay was lifted Sept. 19, 2008 by an order from Magistrate Judge Terrence P. Kemp of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, and a subpoena was served to Connell on the following Monday, Sept. 22.

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lots more there:

http://www.alternet.org/democracy/100881/gop_consultant_subpoenaed_in_case_alleging_tampering_with_2004_election/

[Snazzy]

1. same guy destroyed the WH email related to DOJ

Investigate Why Bush/Rove IT Expert Mike Connell Asked How to Destroy White House Emails


Last update: 1:33 p.m. EDT Oct. 23, 2008

WASHINGTON, Oct 23, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Reporter Rebecca Abrahams wrote this week at Huffington Post that on October 11, 2006, longtime Bush/Rove IT expert Michael Connell met with cyber security expert Stephen Spoonamore to learn how to destroy data on White House computer hard drives ( http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rebecca-abrahams/white-house-emails-the-mi_b_136653.html). This was during the height of the United States Attorney scandal and during the tenure of Connell's former employee, David Almacy, as director of the White House Internet and E-Communications Director.

Abrahams quotes from Spoonamore's emails which reference notes taken at the time of the meeting. Connell was accompanied at the meeting by Randy Cole, the former President of Connell's company, GovTech Solutions, now running for Ohio Congressional seat 41. When Spoonamore realized that Connell and Cole were asking how to destroy White House data, he terminated the conversation and told them that what they were asking about was illegal.

Attorney General Michael Mukasey recently appointed prosecutor Nora Dannehy to investigate whether criminal charges should be brought against those involved in the US Attorney scandal. That investigation should include what role and knowledge Michael Connell and Randy Cole have regarding the destruction of White House computer data, and, as Abrahams suggests, whether Connell knows where the White House email backup is located.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/investigate-why-bushrove-expert-mike/story.aspx?guid=%7B5A2941D9-1DD5-4287-AD8E-E4A91D8A94DD%7D&dist=hppr

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WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 Velvet-Revolution

Velvet Revolution Calls For A Special Prosecutor And Congressional Investigation

WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The GOP's top computer expert, Michael Connell, CEO of GovTech Solutions, was subpoenaed on September 22nd to testify under oath in a federal lawsuit in Ohio regarding his knowledge of election rigging and vote manipulation in past elections and the upcoming election. Mr. Connell, using the Karl Rove playbook, immediately moved to quash the subpoena and stated that he would not comply because he needs to maintain the confidentiality of his Republican clients. Cliff Arnebeck, the attorney representing the opposing parties, says that he will quickly move to "enforce the subpoena."

Michael Connell, after hiding under the radar for almost two decades as the GOP's secret IT weapon for manipulating elections, has now been thrust into the limelight by other GOP whistleblowers, most notably world renowned cyber-security expert Stephen Spoonamore, who identified Mr. Connell as the person with the most intimate knowledge of GOP computer networks including those in the White House and Congress. Mr. Connell, who has worked for the Bush political network since 1986, has been at the scene of virtually every electoral scandal of the past decade -- running Florida computers during the 2000 election and Ohio election computers during the 2004 election, helping to create Swift Boat Veterans for Truth IT network, putting his computer servers in control of the most sensitive Congressional IT networks, and setting up Karl Rove's off grid White House email system used in the firing of the US Attorneys for political purposes.

Our whistleblowers have implicated Mr. Connell in the destruction of the White House emails. Mr. Connell's former employee, David Almacy, worked as the White House Internet and E-Communications Director during the time those emails were "lost." Apparently, Mr. Connell knows where those lost emails are and how and why they were destroyed.

On Monday, Attorney General Mukasey appointed a special prosecutor to investigate the political firings of US Attorneys who would not do the bidding of the White House. We believe that the Attorney General should also appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the conduct, actions and knowledge of Michael Connell and his confidential work for Karl Rove and George Bush. We also believe that Members of Congress should hold hearings and place Mr. Connell under oath to testify about election rigging, destruction of White House emails, and spying on Congress.



SOURCE VelvetRevolution.us

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/bushrovegop-computer-expert-michael-connell,563054.shtml

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They have more info including filings here: http://www.velvetrevolution.us/prosecute_rove/

I don't know about thisa group but getting Connel on the stand is clearly a good idea.