A judge had ordered the detention of two True the Vote leaders for contempt of court, but an appeals court overturned the decision and freed the two.
Late on November 6, a panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ordered the release of Catherine Engelbrecht and Gregg Phillips.
“IT IS ORDERED that Petitioners’ opposed motion for release from detention is GRANTED pending further order of this court,” the panel of judges said in the order.
The panel was made up of Circuit Judges Andrew Oldham, Kurt Engelhardt, and Catharina Haynes, all of whom were appointed by former president Donald Trump.
On November 7, Engelbrecht and Phillips were released.
U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt, a Reagan appointee, found Engelbrecht and Phillips in contempt of court on October 31 and sentenced them to jail for failing to disclose the names of those who they claimed had accessed information from Konnech, a Michigan-based election management software company whose founder was recently detained for allegedly stealing poll worker data and hosting it on servers in China.
VISIT OUR YOUTUBE CHANNELAccording to Hoyt, the defendants were ordered to be confined until they “fully comply” with a request that they provide certain details, including the identities.
According to Engelbrecht and Phillips, they provided the FBI with material that was legitimately received from Konnech. During a hearing in October, one of their attorneys named one of the suspects as Mike Hasson. However, they chose not to reveal the identity of the second individual. Phillips claimed during a hearing that both of the people are FBI informants.
“Those who thought that imprisoning Gregg and I would weaken our resolve have gravely miscalculated. It is stronger than ever,” Engelbrecht said in a statement. “The right to free and fair elections without interference is more important than our own discomforts and even this detention, now reversed by a higher court.”
Well, good for them.
“We are profoundly grateful for that. We will continue to protect and defend those who do the vital work of election integrity, and we will make sure that their findings become a matter of public record.”
Following a defamation lawsuit against True the Vote and its founders by Konnech, a contempt order was issued.
Hoyt issued a temporary restraining order against the defendants, directing them to return any Konnech-owned goods and information as well as identify anyone responsible for breaking into the business’s systems.
Engelbrecht and Phillips claimed that Hoyt’s confinement order “represents a clear abuse of discretion and a manifest miscarriage of justice.” in their petition for release.
“Petitioners pray that this Court enter an Order releasing them from the district court’s draconian order of detention for refusing to identify a federal confidential informant in open court whose identity in any event has no bearing on the merits of this defamation case hinging on competing accounts of alleged historical events,” they added.
The two added that they have never owned or had control over the relevant material. The person’s life would “be jeopardized by border drug and smuggling cartels.” if the name were disclosed, according to Phillips, who claimed that Engelbrecht is unaware of it.
Konnech opposed the petition, claiming that the founders of True the Vote were attempting to “strip the District Court of its contempt power” and that they “have no one but themselves to blame for their confinement” after disobeying Hoyt’s order.
Lawyers for the firm said, “Petitioners’ imprisonment is not an emergency, especially in this case where the Petitioners are contemnors and recalcitrant witnesses who hold the keys to the jailhouse, and can free themselves immediately upon purging their contempt.”
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