Prominent Lehigh Valley Republican sued over election audit contract
Bill Bachenberg named as defendant in federal suit filed in Michigan.
A New York cybersecurity company has sued a prominent Lehigh Valley Republican and a Michigan attorney for allegedly failing to pay for a forensic analysis of voting machines in Pennsylvania’s Fulton County after results did not show evidence of fraud.
The defendants are Bill Bachenberg, co-owner of Lehigh Valley Sporting Clays in North Whitehall Township, and Stefanie Lambert, who on Thursday was charged for allegedly accessing and tampering with voting machines in Michigan, according to The Associated Press.
The lawsuit was filed on July 18 by XRVision and its president Yaacov Apelbaum in the U.S. District Court-Eastern District Michigan.
The lawsuit seeks a jury trial and contains 10 counts, including libel, malice, slander against Lambert and breach of contract against Lambert and Bachenberg.
It asks for $10 million in compensatory and punitive damages plus $550,000 for the cost of the audit.
Bachenberg could not be reached for comment. A woman who answered the phone listed for Bachenberg’s wife, Laura, was asked Thursday night about speaking to Mr. Bachenberg regarding the lawsuit. “I can’t help you with that,” she said, then hung up.
The lawsuit comes as Bachenberg has carved out a leadership role in the Republican Party.
In December 2020, Bachenberg served as chairperson of the so-called alternate Pennsylvania Electoral College members who stood ready to cast their votes for Donald Trump had he prevailed in his lawsuits claiming he, not Joe Biden, had won the state.
Bachenberg, an NRA board member, has actively supported Republican candidates, hosting political rallies at Lehigh Valley Sporting Clays, where Donlad Trump Jr. appeared during the 2020 presidential campaign and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz spoke before the 2022 primary to support Senate candidate David McCormick.
He has also contributed heavily with more than $500,000 in contributions over the last 25 years to Republican PACs, groups and candidates, including Donald Trump’s first two presidential campaigns, according to Federal Election Commission data.
For the May 16 Pennsylvania primary, Bachenberg gave $2,500 to Common Sense Solutions, a PAC started by Lehigh County politico Dean Browning that supported six Republican candidates running for Parkland School Board.
The lawsuit
The lawsuit says XRVision was first retained on May 13, 2021, for work related to the 2020 election in Antrim County, Michigan.
It says that Lambert was among multiple attorneys in Michigan who alleged voter fraud during the 2020 presidential election, and that Lambert allegedly earned income from investors across the country who paid her to participate in election fraud investigations and lawsuits.
According to the lawsuit:
Bachenberg reportedly agreed to pay for attorney fees and expenses in various election fraud investigations and lawsuits and provided a $1 million line of credit to Lambert’s law firm.
Bachenberg “directed these efforts in great detail, deciding, [among other things], which forensic experts to hire and which election controversies to pursue.”
That for every project, Bachenberg paid Lambert’s firm, which in turn paid XRVision for its work.
That XRVision met with Bachenberg during this time, providing updates on projects.
In March 2022, the lawsuit alleges XRVision entered into a $200,000 agreement for a forensic analysis in Pennsylvania’s Fulton County, where former President Trump easily won but state lawmakers, including state Sen. Doug Mastriano who led the “Stop the Steal” effort in the state, requested the county conduct a forensic audit of the Dominion Voting Systems machines.
The lawsuit alleges Lambert and her law firm reportedly represented themselves as representing Fulton County, and that a Pennsylvania court had authorized an audit of the voting system.
The project was later expanded for an additional fee of $350,000. XRVision would not have signed a contract had Bachenberg not agreed to fund it, the suit says.
Bachenberg reportedly reiterated his commitment to pay for the audit during a project status update a month later, the lawsuit says.
During a June 4, 2022, meeting, the lawsuit says the plaintiffs informed the defendants that “while the election systems were highly insecure, there was no key evidence that they had been hacked internationally or domestically or were pre-configured to favor one candidate.”
The lawsuit alleges that Lambert and her law firm requested that a report be written to say there were cheat codes in the software evidence of remote/local hacking. The plaintiffs refused to do so.
XRVision’s final report, submitted on or about June 22, 2022, did not find any evidence of election fraud in the 2020 election, the lawsuit says.
The same day, the lawsuit says, the defendants terminated the project and demanded a refund of all money paid so far on the project. The next day, they reversed their position but did not make any more payments, the lawsuit alleges.
In September, the lawsuit says, Lambert and her law firm filed a second lawsuit on behalf of Fulton County, using a forensic and cyber report by Speckin Forensics.
Two Fulton County officials were later given contempt sanctions by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court for allowing unauthorized access to voting machines, according to The Associated Press. The court ordered the county to reimburse the state for its legal fees in seeking the sanctions.
The lawsuit states that had XRVision known that the defendants were not Fulton County representatives it would not have entered into the agreement.