Comment The leaders of True the Vote, an organization that has spread baseless claims challenging the results of the 2020 election, were taken into custody Monday morning after a federal judge in Texas held them in contempt of court. Founder Catherine Engelbrecht and former board member Gregg Phillips were escorted by federal marshals out of a Houston courthouse and into a holding cell after the judge’s ruling. The order marked the latest twist in a defamation case brought last month by Konnech, an election software company that True the Vote alleged allowed the Chinese government to access a server in China that held the personal information of nearly 2 million workers in US elections. Konnech strongly disputed the claim. The judge overseeing the case, U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt, had ordered Engelbrecht and Phillips to reveal the name of a person who allegedly helped True the Vote gain access to Konnech’s computer systems. When they refused to meet a 9 a.m. court deadline, the judge found them in contempt. The couple claimed, without evidence, that the person who helped them was a confidential FBI informant. In a statement, Engelbrecht said “we will be held in jail until we agree to provide the name of an individual who we believe is not covered by the terms of the judge’s order.” Michael J. Wynne, a lawyer for Engelbrecht and Phillips, said “we are considering alternatives” and declined further comment. Katie Breen, a spokeswoman for True the Vote, released a statement saying the organization was seeking the “immediate release” of its leaders and that its lawyers were appealing the decision. Dean Pamphilis, Konnech’s attorney said, “Judge Hoyt’s order holding Ms. Engelbrecht and Mr. Phillips in contempt speaks for itself.” Konnech CEO Eugene Yu was arrested in early October on charges that appeared to mirror some of True the Vote’s allegations. The Los Angeles district attorney’s office later downgraded his charges, saying Konnech had exposed the personal information of “tens of thousands of county employees in potential compromise.” Yu’s lawyer has asked that the charges be dismissed, arguing they are baseless. Phillips and Engelbrecht are prominent and long-standing members of the pro-choice movement. Days after the 2016 presidential election, Phillips claimed without evidence that he had “verified” that more than 3 million votes had been cast by noncitizens—enough to wipe out Hillary Clinton’s margin in the popular vote. Donald Trump, then president-elect, furiously repeated the claim. Phillips later announced that a fundraising effort was underway to verify his claim. But in a 2017 video posted on YouTube, he said not enough donations were received to complete the work. True the Vote later received millions in donations to investigate the 2020 election. One donor, Fred Eschelman, gave the group $2.5 million but later sued to get his money back, alleging True the Vote funneled much of his money to people or businesses connected to Engelbrecht. A lawyer for the organization denied Eschelman’s claim. Engelbrecht and Phillips recently executive produced “2,000 Mules,” a widely discredited film that purported to show countless people casting illegal mail-in ballots based on surveillance video and geo-tracking data. Although the film’s representatives said it brought in millions of dollars in revenue, no fraud was ever found.
