By Matthew Holloway |
Rep. Abe Hamadeh (R-AZ-08) is calling for greater accountability over decisions by four prosecuting offices to decline charges against a hacker who admitted to exploiting a Maricopa County website and extracting approximately 633,000 voter registration records shortly before the 2020 election.
During an interview with Just the News, Hamadeh said he wants to know which prosecutors were responsible for the decisions after the FBI investigated the breach, identified the suspect, and obtained an admission.
“I’m still curious to know, you know, which attorneys at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, at the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, in Maricopa County, Pinal County, declined charges, especially when the FBI referred it and had this case pretty much handed on a platter to these prosecuting agencies, and they all refused,” Hamadeh said.
The comments followed the release of declassified FBI records detailing the investigation into the 2020 intrusion. In an Aug. 4 letter, FBI Director Kash Patel said investigators confirmed voter records were illegally extracted from a Maricopa County site and identified a suspect who admitted committing the offense.
According to the FBI, the suspect discovered a vulnerability in the county’s voter registration system, wrote a PowerShell script to exploit it, and illegally scraped approximately 633,000 voter files. About 930 contained sensitive, nonpublic information, Patel wrote.
An FBI opening document dated Nov. 3, 2020, said the intrusion began Oct. 21 and continued through Nov. 2, one day before Election Day.
The affected records included full names, voter identification numbers, and party affiliations. Approximately 930 contained sensitive information involving domestic violence victims, judges, and law enforcement officers. The document said Social Security numbers were not included in the information obtained.
The vulnerability allowed an intruder to place voter identification numbers directly into the website URL and bypass its normal authentication process, according to the FBI. The PowerShell script then automated sequential requests for voter registration information.
Hamadeh said the scale of the breach raises questions about the cybersecurity capabilities of less-populous jurisdictions.
“Maricopa County, which isn’t just the biggest county in Arizona, it’s the fourth biggest county in the entire country,” Hamadeh said during the interview. “So if you have these people, these hackers able to exfiltrate into the data systems of a big county like Maricopa, imagine what they can do to some of these smaller counties that don’t have the cyber tech and the counter cyber measures that Maricopa County may have.”
An FBI interview summary said the suspect first discovered the vulnerability around September 2020 after noticing that his voter identification number appeared in the website URL. He tested other seven-digit numbers and discovered that he could access other voters’ registration information.
The suspect then developed the PowerShell script and initially downloaded between 100 and 1,000 records during a trial run before expanding the operation, according to the FBI. He estimated that he ultimately downloaded between 1 million and 2 million records, while investigators documented approximately 633,000 exfiltrated voter records.
The suspect stored information on personal hard drives and a Google Cloud account before deleting it after becoming concerned about law enforcement consequences, according to the FBI report. He described himself to investigators as a “hacker or tinkerer” and accepted responsibility for his actions.
FBI agents executed a search warrant at the suspect’s Fountain Hills residence on Nov. 5, 2020. According to the bureau’s May 2023 case-closure document, investigators analyzed seized devices and obtained records involving the suspect’s bank, social media, and email accounts.
Investigators concluded that he had developed and operated the PowerShell script and later deleted the extracted information. The FBI said investigators found no indication of domestic or foreign influence over his actions.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona declined prosecution. The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office also declined the case and advised the FBI that it had presented the matter to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, which also declined. Investigators then presented the case to the Pinal County Attorney’s Office, which likewise declined prosecution, according to the closure memorandum.
The federal declination occurred July 12, 2021. The released documents do not identify when the other three offices made their decisions.
Because all four prosecuting offices declined the matter, investigators requested closure of the case in May 2023.
Hamadeh said accountability in the case remains unresolved.
“The win that the American people had here in Arizona, especially what we’re still trying to get, is justice,” Hamadeh said during the interview.
Hamadeh also described the intrusion as a “direct attack on democracy” and referred to manipulation of voter files during his remarks. The released FBI documents establish that voter registration information was accessed and exfiltrated; they do not show that the suspect altered voter records, accessed ballots, or changed votes. Just the News also reported that there is no evidence votes were changed as a result of the intrusion.
The newly released records contrast with what Maricopa County officials publicly said about the incident during the aftermath of the 2020 election. In July 2021, county officials told Capitol Media Services that the intruder had accessed a voter registration website but had not penetrated the server storing voter registration records, and said only voter registration numbers had been obtained without access to personal information. The FBI records released this week state that approximately 633,000 voter registration records were exfiltrated and that about 930 contained sensitive voter information.
Hamadeh has made election security a legislative priority in Congress. He urged the Senate in July to pass the SAVE America Act, after the House previously passed the measure and subsequently advanced its provisions through other legislative vehicles. The legislation would require proof of U.S. citizenship for federal voter registration and identification to cast a ballot in federal elections.
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
